CANNON ARM AND THE ARCADE QUEST (Mads Hedegaard, Denmark). 97 minutes. NNN
If you’ve ever wondered what kind of person would commit to playing a forgotten 80s coin-op game for 100 hours on one coin, Mads Hedegaard’s cheerfully DIY documentary is here to tell you. His name is Kim, he’s a quiet Danish grandfather who hangs out at a Copenhagen arcade with some equally obsessive friends, and he is out to set the record for playing a Tempest knockoff called Gyruss.
Hedegaard, who is one of Kim’s friends, approaches the documentary as a hangout movie, filling us in on the backstories of everyone in the group and charting Kim’s training for the challenge, which takes up the first hour of the doc. By the time he drops that coin in the slot, we’re invested.
Available to stream from April 29 at 10 am here