Wordplay
by Patrick Creadon
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DVD Cover Information
Actor: Jon Stewart, Ken Burns, Merl Reagle, Tyler Hinman, Will ShortzDirector: Patrick Creadon
Brand: WELLSPRING/GENIUS
Cinematographer: Patrick Creadon
Writer: Patrick Creadon
Editor: Douglas Blush
Producer: Christine O'Malley
Writer: Christine O'Malley
Producer: Michael Creadon
Producer: Patrick Walsh
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Original Language), Dolby Digital 5.1; English (Subtitled); Spanish (Subtitled)
Format: Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, DVD, NTSC, Widescreen
Picture Format: 1.66:1
Running Time: 94 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2006-11-07
Audience Rating: PG (Parental Guidance Suggested)
Studio: Ifc
Movie Reviews of Wordplay
Movie Review: good stuff
Summary: 4 Stars
You'll like this movie even if you've never done a crossword puzzle in your life. It's smart, funny and just plain entertaining. A must-see for any word nerds out there.
Summary of Wordplay
Witness the inner workings of Will Shortz, NY Times Editor and NPR Puzzle Master, and his brilliant, entertaining and often hilarious contributors as well as surprising celebrity fans. Wordplay takes us through the American Crossword Puzzle Tournament where almost five hundred competitors battled it out for the title "Crossword Champ" and showed their true colors along the way.The linguistic ballet of the crossword puzzle and the obsessive minds that wrestle with them are a source of delight in the charming documentary Wordplay. Though there's no story, the movie has a definite hero: Will Shortz, the editor of the New York Times crossword puzzle, universally acknowledged as the pinnacle of crosswords. Shortz comes across as clever but modest; though he's at the top of his particular world, he retains a bemused perspective on that world's limitations. Though speckled with celebrities from former President Bill Clinton to the Indigo Girls, the most engaging interviews are with puzzle creator Merl Reagle (who gives a fascinating on-screen demonstration of how he starts making a puzzle) and the witty and garrulous commentary by the former public editor for the Times, Daniel Okrent. Like many recent documentaries, Wordplay is built around a competition: The American Crossword Puzzle Tournament, an annual event started by Shortz and embraced by people who have devoted an alarming amount of their brain space to filling squares with letters. Though the movie is not as emotionally involving as Spellbound--still the ne plus ultra of nerdy documentaries--Wordplay's window into its particular subculture will be enjoyable to non-crossword fans as well as committed puzzleheads.--Bret Fetzer
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