A friend asked me recently whether I had seen any good movies lately. I got the sense that my first answer — Peeping Tom — was not suited to his taste. Certainly, he must not have been inclined to watch it after hearing me describe, in glowing terms, a film in which a fanatical moviemaker uses the sharpened leg of his tripod to kill people while recording their deaths.
Not exactly family fare. But you’ve got to love a film that includes the line, “I distrust a man who walks quietly,” even if that line is surrounded by lots of outdated, quasi-Freudian mumbo-jumbo.
At any rate, the film I should have recommended, and later did by email, was Wordplay, a sweet little documentary about The New York Times crossword puzzle, and the tortured souls who live and die by it. Along with (believe it or not) riveting, white-knuckle coverage of the annual American Crossword Puzzle Tournament, the film includes charming interviews with jet-set crossword mavens such as Jon Stewart, Bill Clinton, Ken Burns, and Mike Mussina.
The film left me with a strong desire to try own my hand at filling the ole blank boxes. And try, I have, with only a modicum of success. A few days after watching the film, I signed up for the Times’ Premium Crossword Puzzle club, and began to test myself against it on an almost-daily basis. The puzzles get more difficult as the week goes on; I can only get through Wednesday at this point, but Friday is not completely out of reach. That, at least, is what I tell myself late at night, as I’m stomping loudly up the stairs.
Along the way, I’m gaining a sense of the kinds of people who construct crossword puzzles. They’re a ruthless bunch, and they hold certain beliefs which I find rather disconcerting. For instance: if you “came in second,” you’re a “loser” — unless Mr. Shortz takes pity on you and concedes that may have “placed.” They know that the capital of Tibet is Lhasa, and they’ll hold it against you if you don’t. They suggest that “idiot” is another word for “half-wit;” you might just get the sense that they’re talking about you as drops of your sweat stain the squares of a Monday puzzle.
I like to remind those kinds of people that heterogeneity is the piquancy of life. We can’t all be crossword-puzzle experts, can we?
Anyway, as I was thinking about Wordplay, it occurred to me that the film is representative of a recent strain of documentary film that explores what I would call “niche passions” — pursuits that seem normal enough on the surface of things, until you see them pursued by a group of fanatical oddballs. At their best, such films explore the shared culture that grows up around idiosyncratic hobbies, and poke gentle fun at the film’s subjects while maintaining respect for their lives and beliefs.
And so, having taken a roundabout way to get there, I’ve arrived at this week’s on-again, off-again movie question: what is your favorite film about a “niche passion”?
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