The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters
Seth Gordon
2007, USA
A Documentary following Steve Weibe, a high school science teacher trying to break the world record ‘Donkey Kong’ score, held by veteran gamer Billy Mitchell.
LILY, the caretaker’s daughter, was literally run off her feet. Hardly had she brought one gentleman into the little pantry behind the office on the ground floor and helped him off with his overcoat than the wheezy hall-door bell clanged again and she had to scamper along the bare hallway to let in another guest. It was well for her she had not to attend to the ladies also. But Miss Kate and Miss Julia had thought of that and had converted the bathroom upstairs into a ladies’ dressing-room. Miss Kate and Miss Julia were there, gossiping and laughing and fussing, walking after each other to the head of the stairs, peering down over the banisters and calling down to Lily to ask her who had come.
It was always a great affair, the Misses Morkan’s annual dance. Everybody who knew them came to it, members of the family, old friends of the family, the members of Julia’s choir, any of Kate’s pupils that were grown up enough, and even some of Mary Jane’s pupils too. Never once had it fallen flat. For years and years it had gone off in splendid style, as long as anyone could remember; ever since Kate and Julia, after the death of their brother Pat, had left the house in Stoney Batter and taken Mary Jane, their only niece, to live with them in the dark, gaunt house on Usher’s Island, the upper part of which they had rented from Mr. Fulham, the corn-factor on the ground floor. That was a good thirty years ago if it was a day. Mary Jane, who was then a little girl in short clothes, was now the main prop of the household, for she had the organ in Haddington Road. She had been through the Academy and gave a pupils’ concert every year in the upper room of the Antient Concert Rooms. Many of her pupils belonged to the better-class families on the Kingstown and Dalkey line. Old as they were, her aunts also did their share. Julia, though she was quite grey, was still the leading soprano in Adam and Eve’s, and Kate, being too feeble to go about much, gave music lessons to beginners on the old square piano in the back room. Lily, the caretaker’s daughter, did housemaid’s work for them. Though their life was modest, they believed in eating well; the best of everything: diamond-bone sirloins, three-shilling tea and the best bottled stout. But Lily seldom made a mistake in the orders, so that she got on well with her three mistresses. They were fussy, that was all. But the only thing they would not stand was back answers.
A slave named Django (Jamie Foxx) in the American south not long before the Civil War is freed by a German bounty hunter, Dr. King Shultz (Christoph Waltz) to assist him in tracking down three men. Through their journey, they become friends and strike up a partnership. Django confides in Shultz that he is married and will track down his wife Broomhilda (Kerry Washington). Shultz, enamored with the fact that Django’s wife has a German name and speaks his native tongue agrees to help him find her but they soon discover that Broomhilda is owned by Calvin Candie (Leonardo Dicaprio), a ruthless plantation owner and ‘mandingo trader’. Shultz and Django must convince Candie and his devoted servant Stephen (Samuel L. Jackson) to sell Broomhilda without arousing suspicion.
Side by Side
Christopher Kenneally
2012, USA
A documentary chronicling the history, process, influence and practicality of photochemical and digital film. Narrated by Keanu Reeves who interviews some of the most successful and popular directors and cinematographers in the industry, the documentary explores how digital filmmaking is shaping the future of cinema.
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