Coming Soon to Theatres:

King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters
Grade: B+

For many kids in the 1980s, drinking Slurpees while playing a gazillion games of Ms. Pac Man was a thrilling rite of passage that caused untold amounts of brain damage. Seth Gordon’s gripping and sometimes hilarious documentary studies a subculture of adults who never outgrew this phase, focusing on two men vying for the Donkey Kong world record. The seemingly trivial subject matter churns up unexpectedly profound insights into America’s unhealthy obsession with competition. But even at 80 minutes the film feels overstretched by the final reel.