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Gareth Crook

Pawn Sacrifice (2014)

Updated: Jul 31, 2019

Dark and mesmeric biopic of Bobby Fischer. A lot of effort has gone into making this film about chess as exciting and engaging as possible... and it works! Tobey Maguire plays Fischer’s obsessive brilliance exceptionally well and is supported wonderfully by Michael Stuhlbarg and Liev Schreiber. It’s surprisingly funny too! But it’s not as much about chess as it is about the Cold War one-up-man-ship and Fischer’s deteriorating mental state. Dramatic cameras, rousing score, it hits a lot of blockbuster tropes, but the content keeps it grounded in a truly engaging story.

8/10


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