Wordplay (2006)

Best movie of this year hands down!

Bad Acting and worse Bad Screenplay

I cannot think of one single thing that I would change about this film. The acting is incomparable, the directing deft, and the writing poignantly brilliant.

One of the most extraordinary films you will see this year. Take that as you want.

This movie is a love letter to crossword puzzle lovers! This movie is intelligent, cultured, suspenseful, and lot of fun to watch. I know that this movie will be appreciated by those gamers. Directed by Patrick Creadon, the documentary go into deep detail, what it takes to compete in one of the world's toughest words tournaments and on what makes a good crossword puzzle champion. Without spoiling it, the final championship round was incredibly intense, and watching it was just, edge of your seat, thrilling. Mad props to those crosswords contenders feature in this film. People like three-time champion and professional puzzle-maker Trip Payne. Other people like Al Sanders, the middle-aged man who never seem to rank above third or the prodigious twenty-year old Tyler Hinman. They're all very well-informed. Scrabble and spelling bees require knowledge of a lot of words, but crosswords require unlimited facts, encyclopedic knowledge, and an ability to figure out the author's unstated assumptions about the nature of the clues. The movie structured remind me of two similar documentaries, 2002's Spellbound & 2004's Word Wars, in which the movie shows us, an inside look at a few of the contenders, and then see them compete against each other in the finals. Just with that along, the movie seem very standard, and doesn't really shine; but a few differences, do make this movie stand out from the rest. One big different, is that this movie introduces interviews with a lot of celebrities fans, such as Senator Bob Dole, President Bill Clinton, comedian Jon Stewart, filmmaker Ken Burns, baseball player, Mike Mussina, writer, Daniel Okrent, and singers, the Indigo Girls. While, the celebs interviewers, don't really effect, the story of the competitors. They do, give a lot of insight on how popular, crosswords are. They serve as filler. Nothing more than that. I do have to say, that the film is a bit biased, when it comes to who makes the best crosswords puzzles; all the interviewers are praising how New York Times's editor Will Shortz is, and how the New York Times is the top dog and flag bearer for good Crosswords puzzles. I really doubt that. Some really good interesting puzzles have come from widely-distributed American newspapers such Washington Post, Boston Globe, & USA Today. In my opinion, the most challenging English ones have come from international venues, such as the Times, Daily Telegraph, The Guardian & Sunday Express from the U.K. Also a lot of those good puzzles have also been found in magazines, internet sites, and even dollar store puzzle books. Will Shortz does a good job as a crossword editor, but he's no better than any other crossword publisher. I love him, reading the hate mail. That was a highlight. Don't get me wrong, New Year Times have great puzzles. I love, the ones that they showcase, here. My favorite has to be the 1996 "Election Day" crossword made by math professor, Jeremiah Farrell. I love how both Dole and Clinton remember that on the day after their presidential campaign, one clue asked for the name of the winner. Diabolically, the correct seven-letter word could be either Clinton or Bob Dole. That one is pretty crafty. Sadly, the movie doesn't really focus, too many of these. Most of the good ones are in the bonus section on the DVD with the "Every Word" music video by Gary Louris & the "Waiting for the New York Times," a short film by Patricia Erens. I felt all that, should had been added to the film. I think, another highlight from the film, is seeing famous puzzle constructor Merl Reagle, creating a daily crossword right in front of the camera, and explaining the logic behind it. I also love the idea of seeing the contenders & celebrities try to do that crossword puzzle in 2 minutes or least in one especially ingenious montage, with interlocking shots. Director Patrick Creadon made it easier to understand what's happen on screen, with graphics that show us crossword grids with the problem areas highlighted, and then we see the letters being written in. During the final championship round, with three contenders working on giant crosswords on a stage, he makes their progress easy to follow, by showing each person's process. I love how the movie is edit, each sequence kinda connect with each other, with narrative word phrasing. I love how one guy mentioning Barry Bonds, and the film cuts to stock baseball footage of interviewer Mike Messina shutting down Bonds in a baseball game. Very clever. The movie has a lot of good information, but a few things are so dated like the Marriott in Stamford, Connecticut, being the event place. It's no longer, as increasing popularity, causes it to be moved in 2008, into the Marriott Brooklyn Bridge in Brooklyn, New York, but beginning in 2015 the tournament will again be played in Stamford. I also love how Will Shortz says Pluto is a planet. It made me laugh, how incorrect some of these clues to the puzzles, are. Another is how computers can't do crosswords puzzles. In 2012, a robot call Dr. Fill compete in that tournament against Tyler Hinman. Another problem of the film is the lack of diversity, feature. I think a lot of minorities play crosswords puzzles, too, but the film doesn't showcase, many of them. I wish, they did. Another fault is some of what the celebrity talking heads are honestly saying. Ken Burns looks like a kook, & Jon Stewart really doesn't add much, besides yelling. It's somewhat disappointing. Other than that, the movie is pretty good. I love how the film influence, a 2008 episode of The Simpsons, "Homer and Lisa Exchange Cross Words". Overall: Words connect us, and you can see, all its glory, here with this documentary. It's a must-watch.

Humans are unique in that while nearly all of us communicate with language (and our intellectual processes are fairly similar, even across nationalities, cultures and classes), we have formed a variety of different languages with which to communicate with out neighbors, some of those languages have and are dying out.Crossword puzzles are fairly universal things; you see them in most languages and nationalities with the opportunity for leisure and with an established media and mass distribution points. While this documentary was very focused on crosswords in the U.S. and very specifically on crosswords in the New York Times, the puzzles themselves are not so selectively found. In that regard, while this documentary worked well to educate an audience about somethings they may not have known about crosswords generally or those who either design or attempt to solve them more specifically, the fact that the focuses was so narrowed made it interesting that an attempt was made to distribute this as a feature rather than to showcase it as a documentary on cable or otherwise.The material on New York Times crossword puzzle editor Will Shortz was interesting, if brief. While there was not as much personal focus on "puzzle creator" Merl Reagle, his aspect of the film was perhaps the most interesting and informative.The section on the competitors in the annual Crossword Puzzle Tournament, which was inter-cut (as was the entire film) with very brief interviews with more notable enthusiasts (such as Bill Clinton and Jon Stewart) was the most entertaining of the human interest narratives featured, but probably could have (and I believe was done previously) as a nice piece on 60 Minutes.While worthy of a rental, it's hard to recommend this film as a real documentary.

To me, a successful documentary teaches me about someone or something I didn't know. I am not a crossword enthusiast, but I thought I knew about crossword puzzles. It turns out there is a lot I didn't know, and what I learned in "Wordplay" was conveyed in an entertaining manner.The film is rated PG, and the only mildly "offensive" language occurs when one of the puzzle constructors lists several clinical terms that he is not allowed to use in the puzzles. It's nothing you wouldn't hear at your annual physical.Wordplay is one documentary with three interwoven parts. The first part introduces us to New York Times crossword puzzle editor Will Shortz and a number of puzzle constructors, primarily Merl Reagle. It shows how crossword puzzles are created and edited. It explains the "rules" of puzzle-making, how the degree of a puzzle's difficulty is changed by altering the clues, and how creators use themes throughout the puzzle. It also shows how there are often puzzles within the puzzle.The second part is a series of interviews with six or seven celebrity crossword enthusiasts, and with a number of competitors in the annual tournament. One of the most interesting parts of the film is watching each of the celebrities work on the same puzzle at the same time. The filmmakers use split screens and animation to show the answers being filled in.The third part (and the bulk of the film) covers the 28th American Crossword Puzzle Tournament held in March, 2005 in Stamford, CT. It features more cool puzzle-filling animation, and it includes a blunder of Bill Buckneresque proportions. The tournament is a nerd-fest of the highest order (not that there's anything wrong with that). It's a combination competition, convention, and family reunion. The participants seem like nice people who genuinely enjoy each others' company. There is one scene with an element of sportsmanship that is rarely displayed in competition on any level.You MUST watch ALL of the bonus scenes on the DVD. OK, you can skip the music video, but watch the rest of them. In their entirety they are about as long as the movie itself (94 minutes). They include deleted scenes, extended cuts from the celebrity interviews, additional insight into the puzzle creation process, and more clips from the tournament.There is also a short film about a group of people in a small Wisconsin town who read The New York Times every Sunday. This segment is a little out-of-place if not off-putting. It is not about the puzzle at all, it's just about people who read The Times. I found these people to be elitist and condescending -- not at all what I expected from a rural town in Wisconsin. One of them even admits to "playing at" being a farmer while not at his "home" in Chicago. The point of the film seemed to be that erudite urbanites love spending time in the country as long as they can get a decent cup of coffee and the Sunday New York Times. If I lived in that town I would buy up all of the papers every Sunday so these people would go back from whence they came.

As I watched this movie, I heard all around me little appreciative chuckles from the audience. I like but don't love crossword puzzles (my mother did the double crostics when I was a kid, which were beyond me) and can take them or leave them, but Will Shortz is a gem and the theme of competition is universal. Heck, I don't usually even like documentaries, but I felt as if this funny, courteous, kind, assortment of people was inviting me into a particularly enjoyable party in which nobody was a wallflower. The film-makers deserve credit for the humor and kindness of this film, as well as for the excellent craftsmanship (and their interesting assortment of celebrity interviewees)