Wordplay

I was sure this was gonna have to be one of the rare summer weekends when I simply didn't bother going to the movies.

Having already seen (and thoroughly enjoyed) "WTC," the other options looked bleak. "Pulse" (sorry, dear Kristen Bell, but this one just looks wretched), "Zoom" (did someone who greenlights movies actually say "what if we made Sky High, but with Tim Allen this time?") or "Step Up" (this was definitely the most promising option, but I'm way beyond the demographic for a teen dancing movie.)

Then, the Regal pulled a fast one by booking (surely for one week only) "Wordplay," an endearing documentary about crossword puzzles and the people who love them far too much.

For the record, I love crossword puzzles quite a bit myself, but can only manage to finish half of the ones I start. I think that's why I felt more of a connection to the freaks (and I mean that in the kindest possible way) in "Wordplay" then I did to the competitors in "Spellbound" or any others in the seemingly endless supply of spelling bee movies.

The competition in "Wordplay" is the national crossword puzzle championship (or something like that) in Stamford, Connecticut. On the way there, we get a quick but fun portrait of Will Shortz, the New York Times crossword puzzle guru (who Jon Stewart calls "the Errol Flynn of crossword puzzles.") Stewart is the best of the talking heads who share their love of puzzles, but the Indigo Girls and Mike Mussina were also fun. Ken Burns, however, makes a pompous ass of himself in just one minute of screen time.

Because watching someone do a crossword puzzle is about as fun as, well, watching "Lady in the Water," they wisely keep the competition segment to just about 15 minutes near the end. Before that we get to meet the different competitors, who are varying degrees of odd.

My favorite was Ellen Ripstein, a truly weird lady who likes to twirl her baton in the park and tells us she dismissed a former boyfriend who ridiculed her crossword obssession with the rejoinder, "Well, were you ever the best in the world at anything?"

What keeps it all fun, in almost a "Best in Show" way, is that the competitors, while there to win, are all also clearly having a ball. There's no pressing parents like in the spelling bee. You can just pick your favorite and see who wins this great geekfest.

It's like a more cerebral "Hands on a Hardbody." If you missed that one, definitely rent it. It's just like it sounds: a documentary about a competition to see who can stand the longest with both their hands on a gigantic pickup truck, with the winner getting the truck. You get a glimpse into an obsessive subculture of America, and though you won't like everyone you meet, they're all interesting characters.

So two of my favorite movies this summer, "Wordplay" and "An Inconvenient Truth," have been documentaries. And one of my favorite movies of last summer was "Murderball." I guess I just like docos a lot more than I do Tim Allen or computers that can kill you.