Tetris 

Directed by Jon S. Baird

Starring Taron Egerton, Nikita Efremov, Sofia Lebedeva, Anthony Boyle, and Toby Jones

Released by Apple TV+ Mar. 31, 2023

K had read a positive review of Tetris in the NYT. I lowered my expectations, braced myself for an attack of woke, and watched it. It was quite different and quite a lot better than I expected.

Tetris is the story of Hank Rogers, a creator, and broker of computer games, who, in 1988, discovers an early version of a digital computer game at a trade show. He plays it for five minutes, decides that it’s the next best thing, and then sets out on a monomaniacal adventure to get the rights to market it. It takes him all over the world and, finally, to the Soviet Union, where he meets Alexey Pajitnov, the inventor, and, against all odds, secures the rights to the game and then, along with Pajitnov and family, escapes to the US.

Here’s where the woke comes in: The film has been criticized by some for the casting of Egerton, a Welsh actor of English descent, as Rogers, who is of partial Indonesian descent.

Critical Reception 

Critics weren’t crazy about Tetris. My feelings were captured by one of the comments I read: “While it’s nowhere near as addictive or fast-paced as the game, Tetris offers a fun, fizzy account of the story behind an 8-bit classic.”

Interesting 

Hank Rogers and Alexey Pajitnov reviewed the script, made suggestions, and were able to keep many of the core elements of the story in the movie. However, Rogers noted, “It’s a Hollywood script; it’s a movie. It’s not about history, so a lot of [what’’s in the movie] never happened.”

You can watch the trailer here.

And click here for an article from Yahoo Entertainment comparing the movie to the reality.