Netflix is bulging with world-class sports activities documentaries.
On the prime of the pile is Untold, a collection of immaculate options about the strangest, most unbelievable tales in sport over the previous few a long time. However there’s extra the place that got here from. The Final Dance is on Netflix. The Oscar-winning Icarus is on Netflix. There’s Athlete A, The River Runner, Unhealthy Sport — the listing is countless.
However there’s one documentary I hardly ever hear individuals wax lyrical about. And they need to, as a result of it is unbelievable.
Coming in at an accessible 40 minutes, The Pace Cubers is a brief, barely feature-length documentary about velocity cubing, the act of fixing several types of Rubik’s Cubes as rapidly as potential.
Pace cubing is thoughts boggling. Most individuals would battle to determine a 3x3x3 Rubik’s Dice in hours if challenged, however the perfect can remedy them in seconds. The Pace Cubers explores this subculture, specializing in the tales of two of the world’s quickest, the legendary Feliks Zemdegs and the brand new king of velocity cubing, Max Park.
In some methods, Zemdegs is the Roger Federer of Rubik’s Cubes. Regardless of the actual fact each velocity cubing report he as soon as held has now been damaged, he is extensively thought-about the best of all time, having established as much as 121 world information and successful the velocity cubing world championship twice, in 2013 and 2015.
Zemdegs is the hero of Parks, who now, in 2022, has damaged nearly each report Zemdegs as soon as held. Now 20 years outdated, Park was recognized with reasonable to extreme autism on the age of two. After his mom gave him a Rubik’s Dice to assist develop his motor expertise, Parks rapidly turned obsessive about fixing all completely different sorts of cubes. By means of his participation in velocity cubing competitions, Max not solely discovered his ardour, he discovered a method to socially develop and make nice buddies within the course of.
What might have simply been a bog-standard story a couple of once-legendary determine passing the torch in the end evolves into one thing much more profound. Not solely are Felix and Max buddies, however Felix is one thing of a job mannequin for Park — not simply within the creating artwork of velocity cubing, however in easy methods to deal with himself socially.
Zemdegs’ delicate interactions with Park and his household are on the core of this documentary, they usually’re stunning to look at. Particularly as Zemdegs wrestles with the challenges of now not being on the apex of the pastime he devoted his life to perfecting.
It is heartwarming stuff. Regardless of its brief runtime, The Pace Cubers serves as a incredible portrait of two very completely different people each relentlessly dedicated to the identical pursuit. Past that, it is also a narrative in regards to the true worth of sport, and the connection between these competing in opposition to each other. Solely considered one of these two unbelievable human beings could be the perfect velocity cuber on the planet, however within the grand scheme of issues, does it matter who? The Pace Cubers is a narrative about probably the most fascinating subcultures on planet Earth, but it surely’s additionally a narrative about what it means to be a very good individual. And a very good buddy.