The Speed ​​Cubers (2020)

Directed by: Sue Kim | 39 minutes | documentary, short film | Starring: Max Park, Schwan Park, Philipp Weyer, Feliks Zemdegs

A cube with 54 small colored squares that you must maneuver until the 6 sides of the cube consist of 9 squares of the same color. It’s still a mystery why solving the Rubik’s Cube could become a wildly popular pastime in the 1980s. Trains were late, lovers didn’t show, the dentist drilled with trembling hand, all because of addiction to that thing. And the undersigned? He got a single colored side on red in less than fifteen minutes. And he was proud of that too.

Little of that pride is left after watching the short documentary ‘The Speed ​​Cubers’. In this we see that nowadays the best ‘speedcubers’ take about 6 seconds to solve the cube. They do this by carefully taking in the starting position of the squares in advance and then turning that cube like maniacs.

‘The Speed ​​Cubers’ is a classic sports documentary from A to Z. The climax of the film is the final of the 2019 World Speedcubing Championship in Melbourne. In addition, it is nice to know that there are several finals (such as one-handed turning and cubes with more faces) but that the main track is about the classic cube.

Before we get to the final, we meet both title candidates, the friendly Australian nerd Feliks Zeldegs and the American Asian Max Park. Park is a boy with autism, emotionally retarded. Despite (or because of) his handicap, he is best friends with his great rival Zeldegs. Besides that friendship we see the inevitable home videos, the interviews with family and acquaintances and the preparation for the championship.

The charm of ‘The Speed ​​Cubers’ partly lies in the introduction to this completely weird branch of sport and its participants. But the friendship between Zeldegs and Park is also worthwhile; because it is moving and because authentic friendship is not very common in the sports world. And whether it is top sport? Reflecting on his own glorious achievements with the cube, this reviewer thinks so. What doesn’t make this documentary a hit is that it colors too much within the lines.