By David Baldwin
It is the late 1980s and Henk Rogers (Taron Egerton) is looking for a hit. The Video Game Designer and salesman is hemorrhaging money, but may have found his salvation in a game called Tetris. He is not the only one who wants a piece of it though, and once he learns that the IP rights belong to the Soviet Union, Henk decides he is going to travel behind the Iron Curtain and negotiate for them himself.
Did that sound convoluted? Well, there are a whole lot more rights-related shenanigans where that came from on top of family drama and light Nintendo-related nostalgia. Some of the story has been clearly embellished (particularly a bit cribbed from the Oscar-winning Argo), yet it stays grounded enough to keep your attention. I loved how Lorne Balfe incorporated the music from Tetris into his Score, yet could have done without the recurring neon-soaked 8-bit motif anytime a setting changed.
While Henk’s story is straight-forward enough, it feels like it is at odds with the bigger tale Director Jon S. Baird and Writer Noah Pink are more interested in telling: the dying days of the Soviet Union and all the corruption that goes with it. The shady individuals, the double-crossing deals, the KGB, the spying, Gorbachev, all of it is fascinating and often downright terrifying. There are a whole lot more of these elements in the Film than you might imagine – considering it is called TETRIS – and I think it suffers from having them smashed-together with Henk’s story.
TETRIS is a well-made film despite these qualms and I enjoyed watching it. Egerton is just as charismatic and committed as always, and his chemistry with Nikita Yefremov, who plays Tetris architect Alexey Pajitnov, is wonderful. Had Baird and Pink focused more on that budding friendship or made a separate movie about the inner workings of the USSR, then we could have had a much more cohesive picture about one of the most ultra-popular pieces of media ever created, rather than the messy film we did get.
TETRIS screens at SXSW ’23 as follows:
Mar 15 at 6:00pm at Paramount Theatre
Mar 16 at 5:15pm at Alamo Lamar E
Based entirely on true events that took place in the ’70s, Emmy winner Matthew Macfayden (Succession) stars as disgraced MP John Stonehouse in this three-part Mini-Series directed by Jon S. Baird (Stan & Ollie). We witness Stonehouse‘s downfall as he’s accused of fraud and espionage.
While all this appears rather sensational, it all actually happened. Stonehouse was blackmailed by the Czechoslovakian government, who framed him for having an affair. Desperate to protect his squeaky-clean family man image back in the UK, he agreed to becoming a spy for the Eastern Bloc. As he continues to make gains in his political career, he forms clandestine relationships (including an affair with his secretary) which threaten to destroy everything he has built. A cloud of suspicion forms around Stonehouse both at home and in the public eye. Hoping to escape it all, he devises a ridiculous clumsy plan to stage his death which is unsuccessful. And thanks for that, we have a twisty, darkly comedic story.
Though the history books already have been written and Stonehouse has faced the music for his antics, we cannot deny this is a fascinating glimpse at a story that might not be as well known in these parts. Nonetheless, thanks to a fully-committed performance from Macfayden, we really get into Stonehouse‘s murky headspace and the pressures of being ambitious and the political forces that controlled him. Stonehouse may be a deeply-flawed hero, but he is a mesmerizing one.
STONEHOUSE arrvies January 17, 2023 on Britbox Canada.
(Photo/video credit: Britbox Canada)
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