Movies
Weekend Box Office
Film Awards & Top 10s By Year
All-Time High Scores
All-Time Low Scores
Wide Releases
Now In Theaters
76
(500) Days of Summer
60
9
17
All About Steve
37
Amelia
53
Astro Boy
66
Bandslam
45
Box, The
61
Capitalism: A Love Story
55
Christmas Carol, A
43
Cirque du Freak: The Vampire's Assistant
66
Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs
29
Collector, The
23
Couples Retreat
80
District 9
61
Extract
39
Fame
xx
Fantastic Mr. Fox
30
Final Destination, The
34
Fourth Kind, The
60
Funny People
32
G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra
27
Gamer
41
G-Force
39
Goods: Live Hard, Sell Hard, The
46
Halloween II
73
Hangover, The
78
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
55
I Can Do Bad All By Myself
66
Informant!, The
69
Inglourious Basterds
58
Invention of Lying, The
47
Jennifer's Body
66
Julie & Julia
34
Law Abiding Citizen
33
Love Happens
54
Men Who Stare At Goats, The
67
Michael Jackson's This Is It
51
My Sister's Keeper
42
Orphan
28
Pandorum
63
Perfect Getaway, A
86
Ponyo
35
Post Grad
48
Proposal, The
30
Saw VI
53
Shorts
24
Sorority Row
83
Star Trek
33
Stepfather, The
45
Surrogates
55
Taking Woodstock
47
Time Traveler's Wife
96
Toy Story/Toy Story 2 3D
35
Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen
28
Ugly Truth, The
88
Up
71
Where the Wild Things Are
67
Whip It
28
Whiteout
73
Zombieland
Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.
Limited Releases
Now In Theaters
58
(Untitled)
96
35 Shots of Rum
56
Adam
72
Adela
39
Adventures of Power
78
Afghan Star
61
After the Storm
66
Afterschool
xx
All the Best
58
American Casino
72
Amreeka
48
Antichrist
73
Araya
62
Art & Copy
55
As Seen Through These Eyes
76
Baader Meinhof Complex, The
86
Beaches of Agnes, The
13
Beautiful Life, A
70
Beeswax
35
Beyond a Reasonable Doubt
71
Big Fan
66
Black Dynamite
51
Blind Date
xx
Blind Pig Who Wants to Fly
76
Bliss
35
Blue Tooth Virgin, The
26
Boondock Saints II: All Saints Day, The
57
Boys Are Back, The
45
Brief Interviews with Hideous Men
81
Bright Star
70
Bronson
45
Burning Plain, The
xx
Carriers
55
Casi Divas
57
Chelsea on the Rocks
62
Cloud 9
65
Coco Before Chanel
69
Cold Souls
59
Collapse
44
Confessionsofa Ex-Doofus-ItchyFooted Mutha
82
Cove, The
75
Crude
82
Damned United, The
67
Departures
xx
Dil Bole Hadippa
71
Disgrace
xx
Do Knot Disturb
70
Earth Days
24
Eating Out 3: All You Can Eat
85
Education, An
55
Endgame
xx
Eulogy for a Vampire
xx
Everyone Else
xx
Fatal Promises
56
Fifty Dead Men Walking
62
Five Minutes of Heaven
74
Flame & Citron
49
Food Beware: The French Organic Revolution
80
Food, Inc.
28
Free Style
xx
From Mexico with Love
50
Fuel
25
Gentlemen Broncos
50
Give Me Your Hand
58
Gogol Bordello Non-Stop
72
Good Hair
89
Goodbye Solo
52
Grace
66
Harmony and Me
81
Headless Woman, The
xx
Heretics, The
63
Horse Boy, The
73
House of the Devil, The
xx
How to Seduce Difficult Women
74
Humpday
94
Hurt Locker, The
29
I Hope They Serve Beer in Hell
16
If One Thing Matters: A Film About Wolfgang Tillmans
75
In Search of Beethoven
83
In the Loop
61
Intimate Enemies
42
Irene in Time
70
It Might Get Loud
46
Killing Kasztner
19
Labor Day
xx
Laila's Birthday
41
Little Ashes
41
Little Traitor, The
66
Liverpool
34
Looking for Palladin
80
Lorna's Silence
83
Maid, The
xx
Ministers, The
59
More Than a Game
67
Most Dangerous Man in America: Daniel Ellsberg and the Pentagon Papers, The
34
Motherhood
62
My One and Only
xx
Mystery Team
48
New York, I Love You
73
Night and Day
66
No Impact Man
47
Ong Bak 2: The Beginning
34
Other Man, The
xx
Painter Sam Francis, The
54
Paper Heart
xx
Paradise
68
Paranormal Activity
68
Paris
44
Peter and Vandy
35
Play the Game
77
Precious: Based on the Novel by Sapphire
xx
Pretty Ugly People
65
Providence Effect, The
76
Rembrandt's J'accuse
69
September Issue, The
79
Serious Man, A
40
Shrink
61
Skin
77
Skin Too Few: The Days of Nick Drake, A
xx
Skiptracers
46
Splinterheads
39
St. Trinian's
89
Still Walking
50
Stoning of Soraya M., The
55
Storm
65
Tetro
70
That Evening Sun
72
Thirst
xx
Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas 3D (re-release)
61
Trucker
xx
Turning Green
83
U2 3D
66
Unmade Beds
66
Unmistaken Child
70
Visual Acoustics
55
Walt & El Grupo
67
Way We Get By, The
69
We Live in Public
64
Wedding Song, The
64
Where is Where?
xx
White on Rice
74
Woman in Berlin, A
69
World's Greatest Dad
70
Yes Men Fix the World
69
Yoo-Hoo, Mrs. Goldberg
xx
You, the Living
Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.
Wordplay
Generally favorable reviews
Based on 35 critic reviews
How did we calculate this?
Based on 11 votes
Read user comments
Rate this movie >
Movie Info
Genre(s): Documentary
Written by:
Patrick Creadon
Christine O'Malley
Directed by: Patrick Creadon
Release Date:
Theatrical: June 16, 2006
DVD: November 7, 2006
Running Time: 94 minutes, Color
Origin: USA
Summary
RATING: PG for some language and mild thematic elements
Starring Will Shortz, Bill Clinton, Jon Stewart, Ken Burns, Mike Mussina, Bob Dole, and the Indigo Girls
Wordplay focuses on the man most associated with crossword puzzles, New York Times puzzle editor and NPR Puzzle Master Will Shortz. Director Patrick Creadon introduces us to this passionate hero, as well as to the inner workings of his brilliant and often hilarious contributors and many celebrity crossword puzzlers. (IFC Films)
Also On The Web: Internet Movie Database Official Studio Site
What The Critics Said
All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...
Charlotte Observer Lawrence Toppman
When I first heard about Wordplay, I assumed I wouldn't have an ort of interest.
Read Full Review >USA Today Claudia Puig
If it's challenges you're after, forget cracking "The Da Vinci Code." Wordplay captures the exhilaration that comes from navigating the ins and outs of complex puzzles.
Read Full Review >TV Guide Ken Fox
It's also very cleverly edited - one scene will often branching off from another in much the same way a crossword puzzle works - and features a bang-up ending that will actually leave you cheering over a word game.
Read Full Review >Christian Science Monitor Peter Rainer
At times the film resembles a promo for Shortz and the Times, and the celebrity puzzlers, who include filmmaker Ken Burns, Bill Clinton, and the Indigo Girls, have an unfortunate tendency to bloviate. Not so Jon Stewart, who seems to regard each Times puzzle as an opportunity to go mano a mano with Shortz.
Read Full Review >Seattle Post-Intelligencer Gianni Truzzi
In Creadon's most effective and inspired sequence, he gets Reagle to create a puzzle using the film's title as its theme. It's during the sequence that we learn the lofty rules of creating crosswords, including lateral symmetry and a maximum ratio of black to white space.
Read Full Review >Wall Street Journal Joe Morgenstern
What's an eight-letter word for a non-fiction feature that is witty, wise and wonderful? "Wordplay."
The New York Times Phillip Lopate
Whatever the documentary's flaws, the filmmakers should be saluted for giving us a rare glimpse of life in these trenches.
Read Full Review >Austin Chronicle Marjorie Baumgarten
The fact that Wordplay works as a film at all is a testament to its skill. The New York Times may never find a better marketing tool.
Read Full Review >Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert
The film is made with a lot of style and visual ingenuity.
Read Full Review >Miami Herald Rene Rodriguez
Manages to turn an internal, solitary activity into fodder for an engaging, even exciting movie.
Read Full Review >Portland Oregonian Shawn Levy
In breezy fashion, it introduces us to a handful of crossword savants, the history of crossword puzzles, a number of celebrity crossword addicts...
Read Full Review >Entertainment Weekly Lisa Schwarzbaum
Shortz's gentle manner and French-foreign-agent mustache go a long way toward making him a thinking girl's pinup nerd - and this despite the man's pitiless insistence on making the Saturday New York Times crossword puzzle ''tough as a _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _.''
Read Full Review >New York Post Lou Lumenick
As someone who has never completed a crossword puzzle, I was surprised how engaged I was by Wordplay.
Read Full Review >The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Rick Groen
It's light, it's bright and it succeeds precisely where the lesser doc fails -- by setting modest targets and hitting them square on.
Read Full Review >The Onion (A.V. Club) Nathan Rabin
The film's subjects are almost uniformly likable, self-deprecating, funny, and hyper-verbal, and their peculiar passion for crosswords and the sense of genial camaraderie among buffs proves surprisingly infectious.
Read Full Review >Rolling Stone Peter Travers
There's more palm-sweating suspense in one minute of this baby than in all of "The Omen."
Read Full Review >Premiere Ethan Alter
Ultimately, Wordplay is best enjoyed as an engaging look at a little-known subculture.
Read Full Review >New York Daily News Jack Mathews
In this documentary, I learn there are people who can solve a Monday New York Times puzzle in less than three minutes - without looking words up! I don't necessarily want to know these people, but they put on a good show at the annual crossword championship in Stamford, Ct., which is the centerpiece of this affectionate, smartly-done promo for puzzling.
Read Full Review >The Hollywood Reporter Duane Byrge
While puzzles are not most peoples' lives, they are truly an essential part. Wordplay goes up/down and across on the varied reasons why more than 50 million Americans do a crossword puzzle every week.
Read Full Review >Variety Justin Chang
Punsters, linguists and crossword puzzle fanatics everywhere couldn't ask for a more bracing tribute than helmer Patrick Creadon's buoyant and exhilaratingly brainy documentary Wordplay.
Read Full Review >New York Magazine David Edelstein
Niceness also takes the edge off Patrick Creadon's otherwise revitalizing documentary.
Read Full Review >Village Voice Michael Atkinson
Another doc sharing some of its cultural DNA, the spelling-bee melodrama Spellbound, had children, families, social conventions--Creadon's film has only words and people with a little time to waste.
Read Full Review >Salon.com Stephanie Zacharek
At its best when Creadon is burrowing deep into the world of the puzzles themselves, particularly when he sits down with puzzle constructor extraordinaire Merl Reagle.
Read Full Review >Dallas Observer Melissa Levine
Mostly it's just a sweet and lightly funny piece of highbrow piffle, as enjoyable as it is forgettable. There's no harm done, but there's not much else either.
Read Full Review >LA Weekly Chuck Wilson
Wordplay offers a running tutorial in how crosswords are created - lessons that are enhanced by the onscreen graphics of designer Brian Oakes, which, come tournament time, allow moviegoers to see the clues and grids the contestants are working on, theoretically allowing us to solve the puzzles along with them.
Read Full Review >Washington Post Ann Hornaday
Creadon and his editor, Douglas Blush, add verve to an otherwise talky exercise by cutting Wordplay as if it were a puzzle itself, with Across and Down camera moves and blocks of black space. A visual pun altogether worthy of those being filled in on screen.
Read Full Review >Philadelphia Inquirer Carrie Rickey
In segments such as the Reagle and Clinton interviews, where character is revealed via puzzle style, Wordplay succeeds. The film is less successful when it travels to the American Crossword Puzzle Tournament.
Read Full Review >Boston Globe Ty Burr
Sweet, indulgent, and surprisingly soft in the center; the most minor entry in the brainiac-doc genre to date, it's nevertheless a perfectly entertaining hour and a half for crossword adepts.
Read Full Review >Chicago Reader Jonathan Rosenbaum
This is mildly entertaining, though like the puzzles themselves, it favors diversion over wisdom.
Read Full Review >Film Threat Eric Campos
Wordplay is...well...just about as exciting as a feature length movie about people solving crossword puzzles can be. Not very.
Read Full Review >What Our Users Said
The average user rating for this movie is 7.4 (out of 10) based on 11 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.
Ld H. gave it a9:
It's puzzling that such an entertaining movie should have such a small audience.
Marc K. gave it a5:
I thought this would be an interesting movie with interesting people, and didn't feel that to be the case. Additionally, maybe I'm just the only one, but I felt sorry for a lot of these people...many of them are misfits, and the get-together in Stamford, CT appeared to be one of the only times these people were happy and confident.
George R. gave it a9:
Many people have already remarked on how cleverly edited the piece is, interweaving dozens of characters and subjects in much the same way a crossword puzzle works, a visual pun in itself. But for me, just as frustrating as any Friday puzzle, was to take in Bill Clinton again, who in his very brief, though thoroughly engaging appearance here, demonstrated once again that he may have been our last great president; formidably brilliant, curiously elastic, and genuinely human. In the film he tells a story about how the New York Times, on the eve of the Dole-Clinton Election, unaware of its outcome, published a puzzle that allowed the possibility for both results to be correct. In a true act of good sportsmanship, Clinton sent the completed puzzle to Dole the next morning, indicating modestly that both solutions could be true.
Jim G. gave it a6:
An engaging documentary with a deft, if unquestioning, touch for its subjects. Somehow, for some reason (don't ask me why), I was hoping for something more substantive. I felt entertained by the film, but didn't come away with any new knowledge or new questions. So as entertainment, it was fun. As documentary, it was, well, just another story. The filmmakers pretty much take everything at face value swallowing, unchallenged, assertions that the New York Times is the greatest newspaper in the world and bastian of the crossword puzzle. Would have been nice to have some substance--perhaps some factual history of the crossword puzzle or probing why the fan base (mostly white, mostly male) is so homogenous. Overall, it is clear from the film that crossword fans enjoy a special community and are having lots of fun.
Paul K. gave it a9:
Before seeing this, I thought the subject matter might be too dry...but half way through I found myself really enjoying this movie. Crossword puzzles, here I come!
J S gave it an8:
Very engaging. At times, I wasn't sure whether I was watching a documentary or a Christopher Guest spoof of one. Suspense, laughter, and genuine affection. All that, plus Jon Stewart and Bill Clinton (both, like most of the people in this film, lefties -- in the handedness sense).
