Thursday, January 17, 2013

Indie Game: The Movie (2012)


Follow the trials and tribulations of passionate young people putting everything they have into making highly personal video games.

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I left the world of gaming long ago. The last console I owned was a Sega Genesis. Though I appreciate gaming and gamers, when it came time to declare my geek major, I went for film with a minor in comics. That being said, it's nice to see that the gaming industry is still around and has evolved to the point where mere mortals can make games. Oh and what mortals these be! Choosing a documentary subject is often a total gamble in that you often don't know the outcome in advance. For all you know you could be investing a lot of time, money and energy into a story that goes nowhere. Luckily for these filmmakers, they struck gold. This story is filled with so many opportunities for great drama and they are all seized upon and played expertly. And by setting these familiar stories (the battle between indie and mainstream, the quest for artistic purity, business drama, family drama, self doubt, etc.) in a medium that many are unfamiliar with, the formula gets tweaked just enough to make it almost wholly new. This film is almost enough to make me want to pick up a controller again. Almost.

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