Repertory Series
Pictures of Pixels: Videogames at the Movies
Our latest repertory series (and our new arcade machine!) will help you get in the mood for A Minecraft Movie.
March 20, 2025|Written by Playhouse Staff
Long before this season's big blockbuster release A Minecraft Movie, videogames have played a role in the art and culture of modern American cinema. Our latest repertory series, which anticipates the April 4 release of Minecraft on IMAX, illustrates the lively and dynamic relationship between games, gamers, and an array of memorable cinematic achievements.
This eclectic program includes the thrilling and hilarious documentary The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters (2007), about a high-stakes arcade competition, a 15th anniversary screening of Edgar Wright's visually dazzling Scott Pilgrim vs. the World (2010), and a family-friendly matinee screening of the original Jumanji (1995).
Finally, as a special bonus to set the stage for Minecraft, we'll host a special screening of Minecraft director Jared Hess' first feature, the classic deadpan comedy Napoleon Dynamite.
Join us in the lounge throughout the series to enjoy our newly installed arcade machine, which features a massive library of classic games!
The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters
Two expert gamers duke it out for a record-breaking Donkey Kong score in Seth Gordon's acclaimed documentary, which transforms the insular world of 1980s arcade games and transforms it into a riveting sports movie. The drama revolves around Twin Galaxies, an organization run by the eccentric singer-songwriter Walter Day, which has tracked the top scores of arcade games for decades.
For years, the egomaniacal Billy Mitchell has maintained the top Donkey Kong score, but when a humble engineer from Redmon, Washington named Steve Wiebe steps up to challenge that legacy, Mitchell goes into survival mode. What follows is a thrilling and often hilarious David-and-Goliath saga that resurrects the blend of silliness and obsession that defined a generation reared on button-mashing pastimes.
Saturday, March 29: 1 p.m., 3 p.m.
Scott Pilgrim vs. the World - 15th anniversary!
Director Edgar Wright (Shawn of the Dead) delivers a fresh spin on classic videogame aesthetics with this rich and wildly entertaining romantic comedy, an adaptation of Bryan Lee O'Malley's acclaimed graphic novel. Michael Cera is at the center of a playful saga in which Toronto-based hipster Scott faces down a series of "evil ex-boyfriends" as he courts his new girlfriend, Ramona Flowers (Mary Elizabeth Winstead).
Anime-inspired action showdowns ensue, but Scott Pilgrim truly excels at making it seem as though Scott's self-perpetuated sense of chivalry stems from the sense that his entire life follows the logic of an arcade game. With scene-stealing turns from the likes of Aubrey Plaza and recent Kieran Culkin, Scott Pilgrim vs. the World is a masterful reinvention of the action-comedy formula that reinvented its appeal for a new generation.
Two decades before he directed the upcoming Minecraft, filmmaker Jared Hess made his debut with this deadpan comedic masterpiece, the bittersweet tale of a small-town outsider who navigates the world on his own terms. Jon Heder delivers a performance for the ages as Napoleon, an awkward, unkempt teen resident of small-town Idaho.
In the midst of navigating bullies and mean girls, Napoleon finds a kindred spirit in Pedro (Efren Ramirez), a fellow outcast making an unlikely bid for class president. The movie's irreverent dialogue remains quotable as ever, from Napoleon's sullen explanation of a liger ("bred for its skills in magic") to Pedro's oddly stirring campaign rhetoric ("vote for me and all your wildest dreams will come true"). Hess, who was 24 years old when he directed this feature, captures the essence of rural ennui while mining warmth and good-natured charm in characters unafraid to follow their slanted path.
While not exactly a movie about videogames (though it did inspire an unlikely videogame adaptation in 2007), Napoleon Dynamite earns a spot in our videogame series Pictures of Pixels as it taps into a certain retro 80's charm. Its success set up Hess for the biggest videogame movie of the year.
Thirty years before players got trapped in a game with Minecraft, the original Jumanji inverted that equation: Robin Williams delivers an underrated performance as Alan Parrish, who gets yanked into a mystical jungle board game as a teenager and doesn't make it out until decades later, when the chaos of the jungle follows him. Loaded impressive CGI antics as animals overtake suburbia, Jumanji remains a delightful family-friendly blockbuster (with an early Kirsten Dunst performance to boot).
Williams' surprisingly tender performance doubles as a metaphor for a man resisting the end of his childhood innocence. The movie's lively adaptation of the children's book of the same name anticipated an era of gamers whose obsessions follow them into adulthood, and remains a significant achievement in Hollywood spectacle all these years later.