There have been very few documentaries that I've found myself able to sit through without being distracted; Hoop Dreams, Beyond the Matt, An Inconvenient Truth, and Inside Job being the most notable. I'm not a beer drinker, and can't say I've ever been a participant in a game of beer pong. It's with that, that I found myself watching a very, very well done documentary on the "sport" of beer pong, if you are inclined to call it one.
For those that are unaware, using WSOBP (World Series of Beer Pong) guidelines, beer pong is a game played on an 8'x2' table with 10 plastic cups set up at each end in a tight pyramid formation with the rims touching and pointing towards the opposite end. 24 ounces of beer or water are to be equally distributed amongst the first 6 cups for consumption, with the back 4 cups being filled with 1/3 water not for consumption. The cups are reformed in the pyramid shape once 6, 3 and then 1 remain. The team with first possession gets 1 shot, and each team thereafter will take 2 shots per turn. There are much more detailed instructions, but these are the main ones.
There are different things needed in order to make a documentary good, and Last Cup provides very interesting characters, taking viewers into the lives of four serious beer pong competitors competing to be the winner of WSOBP II: Jamie "The Champ" Clouser of 'Saddams WMDs', who created a website in which individuals could register to play against him, with first time odds being 10-1 in his favor; Antonio "Tone" Vassiliatos of 'We Own Your Face. Tone, undefeated in preliminary play in the prior year's WSOBP only to lose quickly in the elimination rounds, is large muscled man who is arrogant, blunt, vulgar and confrontational; easily making him the most hated man at the WSOBP; Scott "Iceman" Reck of 'Hummel that Sh!t!'. "Iceman", a big fan of the Milwaukee Brewers earned his moniker by being the guy who fills the ice machine at a local college; and then there's Sean Foster of 'Shawn^2'. Shawn is a computer geek who tracks each shot in his matches, and then studies them afterward with hopes of improving and finding an edge. Director Daniel Lindsay does a great job of providing backgrounds on his key characters, as well as showing them at their weakest moments. The characters are compelling and fascinating, and before you know it you're invested in their ability to succeed. As teams lose you feel the disappointment along with them. The name of the game is to be the last team, out of 246 standing, and to the winner goes the title of World Champion and a check for $20,000.
Last Cup is a must-see for fans of documentaries. As the film goes into greater detail, you can't help but find the game itself interesting. The inaugural WSOBP was held in January of 2006 in Mesquite, NV and won by 'Team France' who took home $10,000 outlasting 82 other teams. Billy Gaines and Duncan Carroll, the creators of the WSOBP, took a drunken party game played at fraternities, house parties and tailgates and turned it into a massive sponsored event that gains over 500 teams entered and awards a prize of $50,000. I think I may need to buy myself a table, some plastic cups and some ping pong balls
I'm just not sure I could get past the taste of the beer.
Grade: A
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