sprite writes
broodings from the burrow

August 6, 2006


four days, two movies
posted by soe 1:26 am

In the last four days we’ve seen two movies. Both of them were good, but in vastly different ways.

The movie we saw tonight was Wordplay, a documentary that looks at the hold that crossword puzzles (particularly those published by The New York Times) hold over Americans. The first half of the movie specifically examines the paper’s crossword puzzle — its editor (Wil Shortz, who majored in word puzzles in college), its constructors, its devotees — and it’s a fascinating glimpse into geek culture. (It’s worth noting that The Indigo Girls, Bill Clinton, and Jon Stewart are all fans.) The second half focuses on the annual crossword tournament held in Stamford, Conn., and a half dozen people who are competing for the number one slot. As with any competition, someone will go home happy and others will be devastated by their defeat. If you enjoy games or words, you’ll get a kick out of this film.

Earlier this week, we escaped the New York City heat by watching Little Miss Sunshine. The all-star cast features Greg Kinnear, Steve Carrell, Alan Arkin, and Toni Collette (as well as Paul Dano and Abigail Breslin) as a typical, dysfunctional modern family who finds out that the daughter (Breslin) has won the last-minute shot at beauty pageant two states away. Unable to afford the cost of plane tickets on such short notice, they pack the whole family into their VW van and head to Southern California. Along the way, there are the typical (and atypical) infighting and misadventures that accompany any family vacation. I won’t spoil what happens by going into any more detail, but let’s just say that the movie will likely end up high on my year-end list of favorite movies. As the final credits were rolling, I thought to myself that it’s odd, but that “quirky” seems to be the highest compliment I can pay to a movie or book these days. Maybe it’s because it seems that it’s that much harder to be quirky these days. Or maybe it’s because I am quirky. But when the credits were over and the lights came back up, Rudi turned to me and said, “What a great movie! I just loved how quirky they all were!” So I guess I’m not alone.

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