KILL SCREEN

King of Kong:
A Fistfull of Quarters

* * * 1/2

Billy Mitchell is an asshole. Or a pansy. Or both.

Honestly, I haven't seen many documentaries. I'm fairly specific about which docs I watch, and it usually ends up being Michael Moore ones and anything else that happens to hit the main pulse of pop culture.

King of Kong while not necessairilya mainstream doc, is a fantastic one. It follows two stories: one of Billy Mitchell, the "king of Kong", who has held the world's highest score on Donkey Kong for twenty some odd years. The other story is Steve Wiebe, who has just been layed off of his job and decides to pass his time trying to beat Mitchell's Kong score.

During the course of this 80 minute movie, I found myself running the course of a lot of emotions. I was sad at both character's situations in their lives: one who is holding on to the glimmer of a record that means nothing, but it milking it for all its worth, and another who is only trying to succeed at something in a life where he seems to have been dealt busted hands. I found myself being mad, mostly at Mitchell, who comes across as an arrogant, pompous asshole and at the ruthless villainy of Twin Galaxies, the world's top video game scoring company.

Mostly, I found myself by the end of the movie, laughing a lot at the complete ridiculousness of the entire documentary. At times I wasn't sure if it was a real movie, or a mockumentary. I would like to think that it was real and that Billy Mitchell really is an asshole and that Steve Wiebe really is a nice guy who got screwed around a couple times. And that these two dudes, love Donkey Kong. Like, I mean LOVE Donkey Kong. Or winning. Or one-upping each other.

I loved this movie. I found it heartfelt and honest and funny and maddening and realistic. I guess, this is what every good documentary should be like: giving people an honest look into something they know little about.

I highly recommend King of Kong: A Fistfull of Quarters.

And Billy Mitchell REALLY IS an asshole.