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Director: Eric Chaikin, Julian Petrillo

Starring: Mike Birbiglia, Joe Edley, Stefan Fatsis, Matt Graham, Marlon Hill, Joel Sherman

Word Wars will have you smiling, grimacing and shaking your head as you meet several of the nation’s top Scrabble players. The subject is interesting, but the people are more interesting. Directors Chaikin and Petrillo let the subjects of their documentary tell the story. We don’t see them or hear them and only see the main characters answering their questions.

This documentary introduces the viewer to four top level Scrabble geniuses, and follows them as they prepare and compete at the National Championships in San Diego. They also visit the players at Washington Square Park in NYC and the players there, but the focus is mostly held firmly upon the four main men. Eccentric personalities obsessing over a pastime to the exclusion of everything else in life is the real story here. I had expected something like the entertaining Spellbound from 2002, but when the obsession is transferred from adolescents to adults, the result is that much of the amazement in their abilities is replaced by pathos for their limited lives.

Word Wars is an entertaining feature for fans of the game, or for those who enjoy learning about the corners of our society and the unusual personalities that you find there.

Starring: Anthony Hopkins, Iain Rea, Tessa Mitchell, Aaron Murphy

Writer/Director: Roger Donaldson

A surprising, low key drama about a man that has no concept of balance beyond its application to motorcycles, but has a lesson to teach us about the power of self-belief and single-minded determination. Find your passion. Set a goal. Pour all of your energy and resources into reaching that goal and Bob’s your uncle. I don’t know if such obsession is a recipe for happiness, but it makes a pretty good movie. Oh and if you don’t know the saying ‘ Bob’s your uncle’, you will have to go to New Zealand, or rent the movie. Renting the movie is cheaper.
Hopkins is Burt Munro from New Zealand and he seems to have spent the better part of his life attempting to make his 1920 Indian motorcycle go faster. This true story follows Burt on his travels to the Salt Flats for Speed Week. Nothing is easy for him, but he never quits (no one in the movies ever quits) and it makes a pretty good story.
Hopkins puts in his usual flawless performance and he has a likable, if eccentric, character to work with. This is a very entertaining movie for fans of human dramas that don’t require violence or full frontal nudity to hold their attention.