Review: ROCK PAPER SCISSORS (Cynthia Corral)
Posted by Cynthia Corral
Five minutes into this documentary about two brothers who have brought the famous children’s game into World Championship status, I wrote down this note, “Is this for real??”
I had spoken to Graham Walker, one of the brothers, through the computer before attending the film. He seemed to be VERY serious about his film. So as I watched these over the top characters on screen, these players who seemed to have taken “taking it seriously” to a whole new level, I felt like I had been had. There was no way this was a documentary. From the “team doctor” to a trophy fashioned out of a wooden hanger and a gilded fist flinging the “bird”, to then hearing about a bidding war between Fox Sports and ESPN over who would show the World Championships (Seriously? ESPN??)… and Hello, I haven’t even told you about the players yet.
On the other hand, there also seemed to be a pretty big effort to make this seem real. Clips from the Conan show, Ellen, the CBS Morning Show and even CNN certainly made it appear real, and the previous World Championships filmed sure had a lot of extras walking around…
Well, folks, this film was about as real as they come. I think I could have enjoyed it more if I had know for sure if real or not because I spent too much time trying to figure out the truth. Honestly, I was only convinced of its realness when the filmmaker stood up for the Q&A.
“Are you a fan of RPS?” he was asked.
“Umm. No.” was his reply, to great applause. He also informed us that it’s the only sport that has no rules against banned substances. Thanks, Cinequesting, for asking the important questions. People do want to know.
But did I like it? Yeah, yeah I did. We were all laughing hysterically, we just were never sure what we were laughing at: documentary or mockumentary? But there is no denying that the movie was entertaining, and it was actually really well put together. Matti Leshem, executive producer of such hits as “Paula Abdul: Cardio Cheer”, is set up as a perfectly villainous promoter, and there were various colorful heroes from the large group of competitors. Master Roshambollah was in the audience with some friends, sitting right behind me and cheering loudly in all the right places.
It took me a while to figure out exactly what I thought about this movie. I really had to get it into my head that this was all real and not one big joke being played. But no matter what, I can’t deny that I laughed and had fun, and with the crazy mix of characters that show up for these championships, well, you may just find me there as a spectator one day.
Tags: CQ19, DOCUMENTARY, ROCK PAPER SCISSORS.
Review: Rock, Paper, Scissors (Jason Wiener)
Posted by Jason Wiener
Originally posted at Jason Watches Movies:
A movie that had most of the audience guessing, “Is this for real?”, Rock, Paper, Scissorsis (I’m not kidding) a documentary about the world championship of Rock, Paper, Scissors. Plenty of people asked if this was actually a mockumentary (not in the Q&A with the director, but amongst ourselves afterwards), and I’ll go on record as saying I believe it is a real documentary. The premise (guys taking a simple activity way too seriously and competitively) reminds me a lot of Air Guitar Nation (the world championships of air guitar), which also had a strong ‘is this for real?’ vibe. Anyway, the RPS championship is the brain child of brothers Douglas and Graham Walker. They didn’t know if anyone would show up, but instead it turned into a niche cultural phenomenon (and a huge money sink for them), with larger than life figures like the zen-like Master Roshambollah (who was at the screening) and C. Urbanus–who becomes the sympathetic hero for promoting the sport, teaching the strategy, and then always losing in the first round. Oh yeah, about “strategy.” It does exist, and it’s surprisingly more complicated than you’d think. Ideally, perfect randomness is a zero-sum strategy. But people can’t truly be random, so the trick is to guess your opponent’s non-randomness, and counteract it. And, of course, he or she is trying to do the same. Basically I’d sum up the strategy as “out think your opponent, but not yourself”. There are even terms for series of throws–Avalanche (Rock, Rock, Rock), Bureaucrat (Paper, Paper, Paper), Scissors Sandwich (I can’t remember if it was Scissors, Paper, Scissors or Paper, Scissors, Paper), etc. Seriously, mathematicians and game theorists write papers on RPS strategy. And if all this wasn’t weird enough, the Walker brother’s World RPS Society gets challenged by the flashy upstart USA RPS League. That’s right, a former potential business partner starts a commercial league that gets sponsorship, actually makes money, uses Playboy Playmates as RPS models. The Walkers refuse to go along, claiming they’re destroying the purity of the sport. A truly bizarre story, where the humor comes from taking something silly way too seriously.
As I think about it, there’s actually a small niche of films like RPS. Anyone up for a trilogy of RPS, Air Guitar Nation, and Pizza! The Movie (the documentary that includes competitive pizza dough tossing, not the narrative comedy that I haven’t seen)?
Rock, Paper, Scissors plays again on Feb 28 at 12:15 pm and Mar 8 at 5:15 pm (both times at the Camera 12 theater).
Go here for the CQ program notes and to buy tickets.
Go here for the official website.
Tags: CQ19, DOCUMENTARY, Reviews, ROCK PAPER SCISSORS.
Trailer: ROCK PAPER SCISSORS
Posted by CQ Central
Trailer for Mike McKeown’s Rock Paper Scissors.
Rock Paper Scissors showtimes at Cinequest 19
Tags: CQ19, DOCUMENTARY, Mike McKeown, ROCK PAPER SCISSORS, TRAILER.