Episode 53: The Speed Cubers and The King of Kong

Cinema in Context

Obsessive game competition documentaries. Sarah Watt, Jeremy Downing and William Chen discuss the Netflix+ distributed The Speed Cubers and The King of Kong (2007). We begin by discussing the despicable qualities of the people featured in The King of Kong, particularly Billy Mitchell, and the under-dog qualities of Steve Wiebe. We then talk about the filmmaking and crafting of The King of Kong, particularly the areas where artistic license has been taken, and highlighting the characters of Brian Kuh and Steve Sanders. We move the conversation into The Speed Cubers, highlighting the difference in spirit between the two films, with the more recent film being far kinder than the harsher older film - connecting to our previous episode on Catfish and Tickled. We unpack the focus of the film The Speed Cubers, especially around its lack of focus on speed cubing competitions, with a focus on the relationship between Max and Feliks. We then discuss the films in comparison to other documentary films and documentary series, such as Spellbound, Wordplay, Double Dare, Jesus Camp, Jeffrey Epstein: Filthy Rich, Capturing the Friedmans, Three Identical Strangers, The Wolfpack, The Act of Killing, The Last Dance, Samsara and Koyaanisqatsi, particularly in structure and crafting, genre and place within the wider documentary film landscape, and the change in distribution style, between classic cinema release and Netflix. Our conversation then moves to the films' focus on the autism spectrum, discussing Max Park, the potential of Steve Wiebe being on the spectrum, with further connections to the Netflix docu-series Love on the Spectrum. We finish our conversation by considering both films as commentary on modern times, particularly each film representing two different philosophies around how to perceive of the world, with The King of Kong being a potential allegory for America's journey over the past decade, with The Speed Cubers being a story of friendship, community and hope for young people, regardless of nationality.