TETRIS (2023)

March 31, 2023

Greetings again from the darkness. Were you one of those? Did you spend hours strategically placing ‘tetrominoes’ on the Gameboy screen for maximum points? Were you addicted to Tetris, one of the earliest globally popular video games? As one of the few people alive today who has never once played Tetris, I was still interested enough in its origin story to watch and review the film from director Jon S Baird (STAN & OLLIE 2018, and FILTH 2013) and screenwriter Noah Pink (creator of the “Genius” TV series).

Taron Egerton (ROCKETMAN 2019, EDDIE THE EAGLE 2015, the KINGSMEN movies) stars as Henk Rogers, who, when we first see him, is pushing the floundering video game he designed himself. It’s at a 1988 conference where he stumbles on an early version of Tetris, and the rest of the movie involves Henk trying to outmaneuver Russians, hucksters, and corrupt businesspeople – each more powerful than him – for the territorial rights to market Tetris, a surefire hit in the early days of video games.

At times, the story plays like a spy thriller, but mostly it’s a story of Communism vs Capitalism, with greed playing a significant role with all involved. One wouldn’t expect foreign intrigue and geopolitical business strategy to facilitate video game distribution, yet in fact, those elements are front and center. Henk’s’ journey finds him crossing paths with Robert Stein (Toby Jones), an international video game agent; renowned publisher and politician Robert Maxwell (an unrecognizable, except for that distinctive voice, Roger Allam) and his arrogant wannabe-power broker son, Kevin (Anthony Boyle); Hiroshi Yamauchi (Togo Igawa), the head of Nintendo; and most importantly (and stressfully), the Russians. If you don’t recognize the name Robert Maxwell, you surely know the story of his daughter, Ghislaine.

Alexey Pajitnov (played by Nikita Efremov) is the Russian computer programmer who initially developed Tetris, and of course, he is the one in danger when the game becomes embroiled in a tug-of-war between Russia and Westerners. Belikov (Oleg Stefan) negotiates on behalf of the Russian government, while Tracy (newcomer Mara Huff) acts as Henk’s translator. But, of course, in Russia, not everything is as it seems, so Henk and the Maxwells and Stein all act in ways not acceptable to Russian protocol. It’s Henk who has literally bet his house on Tetris, but Maxwell’s highly publicized shady business dealings are a factor as well.

At times, the film has a cartoonish feel to it … some of that by (8-bit) design, and some of it just in how the story is presented. Those involved have admitted they were following in the footsteps of THE SOCIAL NETWORK (2010), a superior film. Ego and greed are always a bit uncomfortable to watch play out, but we do learn that the name Tetris was formed by blending ‘tetra’ (four) with ‘tennis.’

AppleTV+ on March 31, 2023

WATCH THE TRAILER

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Posted by David Ferguson

TOLKIEN (2019)

May 9, 2019

 Greetings again from the darkness. As fascinated as we are with great writers, the cinematic appeal of watching someone put pen to paper, clack away on a manual typewriter, or peck at their laptop keyboard is at best negligible, and more likely, non-existent. Still, award-winning Finnish director Dome Karukoski chose renowned writer J.R.R. Tolkien as the subject of his first English language film. Tolkien’s actual writing time on screen is mostly limited to a single shot at the film’s conclusion; however, the script from David Gleeson and Stephen Beresford attempts to connect the dots between his real world life to his Middle-earth characters and adventures from “The Hobbit” and “The Lord of the Rings”.

Harry Gilby portrays the young John Ronald Reuel Tolkien, and then Nicholas Hoult stars from college age forward. The film bounces between Tolkien’s childhood as an orphan, his elite private school education at King Edward’s School in Birmingham, matriculating at Oxford University, and soldiering in WWI. It’s during his stay at Ms. Faulkner’s (Pam Ferris) boarding house when he meets Edith Blatt, the love of his life. While attending prep school, he and three friends: Robert Gilson, Christopher Wiseman and (poet) Geoffrey Smith, form the TCBS (Tea Club and Borrovian Society), a club dedicated to changing the world through art. It’s at Oxford where Tolkien’s love of language kicks into a yet higher gear, though it’s during his time in The Somme – one of the deadliest battlefields of WWI, that we see his ‘trench fever’ contribute to many of the visuals later associated with his books.

Lily Collins portrays Edith at the age where Tolkien must choose between her and his Oxford education, but as often happens with true love, the two later reconnect and remain married for more than 50 years (until her death). This film doesn’t cover their later years, and instead focuses on the formative ones – both for his imagination and their relationship. We see his early childhood games (The Shire inspired from his time in Sarehole outside Birmingham) and the film often slaps us with an ‘obvious stick’ on how certain segments of life translate directly to his familiar stories in future years. In fact, there is no mention of C.S. Lewis and The Inklings – his friends who later supported his writing efforts. We do, however, get a sequence with Tolkien and Edith backstage at Wagner’s “The Ring Cycle” Opera … a dot that requires the simplest of connectors.

The film looks terrific – especially in the battle scenes which are staged dramatically and horrifically (much as we imagine the war was) by cinematographer Lasse Frank Johannesson. Unfortunately, that’s the highlight. This is mostly a generic biography of an extraordinary writer. Adding to the frustration is the fact that Nicholas Hoult recently portrayed reclusive writer J.D. Salinger in REBEL IN THE RYE … roles too similar for the same actor.

“The Hobbit” was published in 1937 and “The Lord of the Rings” trilogy in 1954-55, the latter being the best-selling fiction of all-time before being overtaken by JK Rowling’s ‘Harry Potter’ series. Tolkien’s key seems to have been his lifelong fascination with language. He even created his own – not just words, but complete languages. That would likely have made a better focus here. Seeing the foundation of “the fellowship” was somewhat interesting, although much of that segment came across like a poor man’s DEAD POET SOCIETY. Supposedly the Tolkien family has refused to endorse the film, likely placing the script “In a hole in the ground …”

watch the trailer:

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Posted by David Ferguson