It's kind of fitting that the first movie I watched upon arriving home from Sundance was, hands down, the best documentary to come out of last year's Slamdance Film Festival. It's unfortunate this film wasn't nominated for an Academy Award, but then again it doesn't feature anyone from Iraq, Michael Moore and/or a group of people who've been molested. The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters is, instead, a film about achieving your goals; about conquering villains and inner demons. It's about learning how to play by the rules and, subsequently, learning how to lose with grace and honor. I've recommended a lot of films in the past year, but The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters is one you definitely must see. And heck, bring along the entire family -- this isn't just a film for the young at heart; it's for the young with heart as well.

The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters follows Steve Wiebe; an average dude living an average life with a wife and two kids. He's the kind of guy who's always had a hobby -- be it baseball or music -- but for one reason or another, has always come up short. A huge Donkey Kong fan from back in the day, Wiebe gets it in his head that he wants to try for the record -- a high score secured by the great gamer Billy Mitchell back in 1982. A score that remained on top for years and years and years ... until now. But it won't be easy; Mitchell is a celebrity in the world of gaming, as well as a self-made millionaire due to his line of hot sauce. He's a legend, who comes with a legion of fans and henchmen. Remember the Mantle/Maris home run race in 1961? Yeah, well this is even more intense.

I'm utterly amazed at how a few astute filmmakers can take a story so slight, so silly and so trivial ... and turn it into a 90-minute documentary that's as fascinating as something that Ken Burns put together. Yes, The King of Kong is a documentary about bragging rights among video game geeks -- a topic so nerdy I hesitate to even mention how fascinated I was by the flick's subject matter -- but it's also as compelling, colorful and entertaining as any of the "human interest" documentaries of the past five years. If you liked Spellbound, Word Wars and Wordplay (or any other enthusiast-friendly documentary), you're going to have a ball with The King of Kong, and if you're about my age (let's say mid-30s) and you remember the earliest days of video gaming with much enthusiasm, I'd bet you a thousand quarters that you'll get a huge kick out of the flick.

The story in a nutshell: Back in the mid-80s, a video game mega-guru named Billy Mitchell set the all-time world record for Donkey Kong. (Donkey Kong, you'll remember, is the game in which Mario made his debut while trying to rescue the princess from a grumpy giant ape.) Mitchell's record remained uncontested until 2006, which is when a mild-mannered family man called Steve Weibe broke the all-time high -- but when he submitted his score to the "official" gaming commission, it was denied because Steve racked up all his points on a home-based machine. Apparently the only way to truly claim the record is to play the Donkey Kong machine that's inside a specific Funland location. But that didn't stop Mitchell from submitting his own video-taped record -- and that score WAS accepted as yet another new world's record.