Cruciverbal

Wordplay

(2006)

Come on, admit it: you do the New York Times crossword puzzle every day and record your time. Admit it: you spend more time with the Saturday puzzle than with the entire A section. Admit it: your life's ambition is to win the national tournament.

No? Not true? What are you, some kind of freak? You might still enjoy this documentary, which, while it falls short of its obvious model, Spellbound, nonetheless provides a unique portrait of competitive obsession. But you probably won't need to own it, and you probably won't watch it in honor of tournament weekend (in Brooklyn for the second year, after spending its first 29 at the Stamford, Connecticut, Marriott). You'll probably just watch it once, laugh at the oddballs, and forget about it.

The rest of you, though--the normal ones--you know what I'm talking about.