04/09/06 Wordplay

Wordplay (2006), directed by Patrick Creadon

watched w/ Leslie; theater (Carolina Theatre, Durham, NC); Full Frame Documentary Film Festival

In what has become one of the world's most critically acclaimed film festivals, this weekend treat took place quite literally in our backyard...so we had to catch it. Missing out on a few bigger named special screenings I wanted to see, I felt that this particular doc would be personally special on this day. You see, today is my mother's birthday, and yesterday was my late grandmother's. They both had always been avid fans of crossword puzzles. This film "Wordplay" takes a very interesting look into the sub-culture of fanatics of this mind puzzle of a game. Wait, can it be a sub-culture when the game in question is plastered into every newsprint media across the world? Anyway, focusing acutely on the New York Times crossword puzzle, the filmmakers went to great lengths to unearth the history of, editorializing features, hobbyists vs. fanatics, competitions, and introspective knowledge seeking of this most sweet brain candy adventure. With mastermind Will Shortz and his crossword constructing cronies, people's minds continue to wrap around the gamut (from mundane to the complex) of clues to our English language. Some interesting tidbits of vocabulary vexations come from the crossword constructors themselves, as we get to see how a puzzle is created, follows certain guidelines, and is checked for errors. Did you know that one golden rule for crosswords is that the white vs. black boxes can be flipped symmetrically to be exactly the same both ways? You're a dork if you did. But guess who else is a dork along with you...Bill Clinton, the Indigo Girls, Ken Burns, and Jon Stewart (who all make candid cameos in the film). Also, competitive gaming is followed to the national championships of the upper echelon of wordplayers, similar to another great documentary "Word Wars" (Scrabble). Oh, and probably the coolest fact about us seeing this movie...we had another film festival brush with fame. We bumped into and walked across a downtown Durham crosswalk with none other than Danny DeVito. On that note, I'll take you out with a song from the film..."if you don't come across, I'm gonna be down." Think about it.

5 out of 5 stars