Accessible Assassins: ‘Quad Gods’ Movie Review
MAX has had a vested interest in documentaries. Easily digestible documentaries are one of the biggest draws that bring people to streaming services. With that, MAX has had somewhat of a renaissance in the format over the past few months. Quad Gods represents not only the communities it portrays but also somewhat of a new school of documentary.
The documentary follows the Quad Gods: an E-Sports team made up of quadriplegics who play with specialized accessible controllers that allow them to play in an accessible Rocket League. The documentary follows the teams ups, downs, personal lives, and camaraderie. Through the documentary’s three subjects we learn how their lives have been impacted by their disability and how they overcome that to become the world’s first ever all quadriplegic E-Sports team.
The documentary’s style utilizes different techniques across the history of the form to create a documentary that feels compelling and whose style bolsters its subject matter. The documentary has points of joyousness, heartbreak, and points that can leave you on the edge of your seat. The sequences where the Quad Gods are in a match are the most compelling parts of the movie. For those unfamiliar with E-Sports this documentary would be the optimal way to begin to familiarize yourself with the growing industry. What makes the style so unique is that the documentary instead chooses to focus on the personal sides of the players while putting the gameplay in the background. What this does is make the audience care about the players which gives the audience a reason to watch them play a game that viewers at home might not be familiar with.
Where this style can go wrong however is that it chooses to put the one source of rising action and tension in the background. In the film, there are only two matches shown. One before the giant tournament the team has been preparing for the entire time and one at the end of the tournament. The documentary puts an ellipsis where the audience is supposed to feel the tension ramp up. Therefore, when the final match is shown it is genuinely jarring. Instead of a montage or a sequence explaining how the other members of the Quad Gods were eliminated from the tournament and how the final two members made it to the final round of the tournament, the audience is just shown the final part. If this movie were fiction, it skips most of the third act and just skips to the climax. It not only does the documentary a disservice but it also creates a significant amount of confusion in the overall structure and pace of the film.
Where the film gets its strength is from its subjects. Every time we see the subjects it is not as an outsider but as we are alongside them. The film transports us into the world of the quad gods and every goal scored against our valiant heroes cuts like a knife. Every time Richard, Prentice, and Blake are shown in their day-to-day lives it does more than just explain the struggles of being quadriplegic in a world not built for them. The film opts to show us the human side of the subjects as well as the competitive edge. Watching Richard give a speech to the team after their exhibition loss in the first third of the film was heartbreaking. Hearing their testimonies about how each of them became a quadriplegic offers another emotional core for the movie. Hearing Richard’s story of how a mugging gone wrong, Prentice’s story of a freak motorcycle accident, and how an accident on a football field all changed these men’s lives is heart-rending and the film is much stronger for having the basis of the film be on the emotions of the subjects.
Jess Jacklin, the filmmaker behind the project, is making her directorial debut with this feature-length documentary. Her style at points is reminiscent of the more direct cinema approaches with the talking head segments which indicate an interest and love for the more contemporary documentary leanings over the past few years. The animated interludes that act almost as dream sequences for Richard are an interesting way of playing with the overall style of the film. Not only do they act as act breaks but also as a way for the subject to reflect on his inner struggle. Overall, this is a well-crafted vision from the director and her style makes her one to watch in the coming years.
Ultimately, the documentary achieves everything it sets out to do. It educates an audience that might be going in blind about E-Sports, accessibility in gaming, and the struggles that come along with “being a prisoner in your own body” as one of the Quad Gods says. The documentary follows these themes with moments of genuine hilarity and heartwarming moments of growth for everyone on the team. Watching the birth of an accessible E-Sports tournament is something that might not seem important to the larger world but for the Quad Gods and everyone involved the tournament is a matter that is deadly serious to those who score every goal. Video games have gotten more respect in the past few years and E-Sports have grown into a billion-dollar industry. With that, the Quad Gods, and the subsequent documentary by Jess Jacklin, aim to level the playing field with a must-see documentary that will leave you walking on air.
