Seen: January (27th?), 2007
Format: DVD
Rating: 9
Documentaries are tough. Their makers are a special breed and generally motivated by some singular passion. Therein lies the problem, as the passion required to make a documentary, which is not a small undertaking, generally impedes its objectivity. The hallmark of accomplished documentarian is the ability to harness his passion, maintain his objectivity and present his material as fairly as possible. When he fails (or fails to try) the result is often strident info-ganda which polarizes his audience into sycophants and detractors.
The documentary's job is to inform and perhaps to teach. Unfortunately, to accomplish this, the documentary is also required to engage, often by entertaining but sometimes by shock, anger, outrage or intrigue. It must engage to teach, and the way that it chooses to engage is critical.
Wordplay engages us with joy. And triumph, and tragedy, and comedy. Wordplay is perhaps the best documentary I've seen.
Wordplay show us the world of crossword puzzles. And it is a world. We meet the solvers, and they are monumentally diverse. We meet the constructors, obsessed with their own way, at once orthogonal and symbiotic to the solver. We meet the editors, who bring them together. And we see their dance in all its beauty. The subjects are too interesting to ever have been written. They are real because they're real. Their triumphs and tragedy, while perhaps not of world changing import, move us because they might have been ours.
Wordplay succeeds simply because the filmmaker's want to share this world with you. They truly care about their subjects. The weave the smaller stories into a greater tapestry that remains continually engaging, continually true, but still maintains a well-defined arc which pulls the film along to its conclusion. A truly masterful job of direction, filming and editing.
The Good: A view into the word of crossword aficionados. Great DVD extras.
The Bad: A bit quirky. Perhaps uninteresting to some.
The Ugly: None. I can't think of a thing. And I've tried.
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