Constructor: Jeffrey Lease
Relative difficulty: Easy-Medium (Easy, but skewing Medium if you were unfamiliar with the movie titles)
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THEME:"Film Adaptations"— movie titles "adapted" such that they are represented *literally* in the grid. Thus:
Theme answers:
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I'm finding this hard to dislike. The theme is kinda charming, despite a few weak spots, and despite seeming like you could do three or more full Sunday-sized puzzles with the same theme. Just off the top of my head: "Moon Over Miami,""Bullets Over Broadway,""Double Indemnity,""Three Men and a Baby" (MEN MEN MEN A BABY?), "Gone Girl" (so ... just empty squares I guess), "Back to the Future" (ERUTUF EHT OT), "To Live and Die in L.A." (L TO LIVE AND DIE A), etc. etc. ad infinitum ad astra forever and ever. The set used here is mostly solid—very familiar movies, except for "Double Jeopardy," which ... what is that? Tommy Lee Jones and Ashley Judd? I have no recollection of this movie's ever existing. And it made how much!? $177 million!!! Wow, that has to be the least consequential, smallest cultural-footprint movie ever to make that of profit (on a $40 budget!). Has anyone mentioned that movie since 1999? In any context? At all? Well, it was obviously a "hit," so ... OK! Doesn't seem nearly as substantial and iconic as the others, though. But the others were all readily familiar to me, so the set seems well chosen. The "adaptations" are of varying degrees of quality. ONE FLEW over THE CUCKOO'S NEST is kind of a boring, and THE LAND TIME is an absolute dud. I mean, yes, words come before other words as a matter of course, doesn't mean it makes for good visual wordplay. See also, to a less disappointing extent, READING BURN, which at least has the mild strangeness of its words appearing in the wrong order. So, yeah, some of these don't really do much. But then there's the THE EMPIRE SEKIRTS, that's cute, and the little "shop" in [SHOP] OF HORRORS, and (best of all) the absolute nuttiness of the hidden "dragon" part of "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon." That answer was just like "*&$% it! We're gonna outsource the DRAGON-hiding work to a nontheme answer, good luck everyone!" Loved it. I got ESFEET at 128A: Deliberately procrastinate and was like "whaaaaaaaaat is that?" And only then did I see the "CROUCHING TIGER" clue. That is what all "wacky" puzzles should be: absolutely off-the-charts wacky. Avant-garde. Dadaesque. Just loopy. So, on the whole, as Sunday themes go, this one was on the stronger side, with more hits than misses.
Relative difficulty: Easy-Medium (Easy, but skewing Medium if you were unfamiliar with the movie titles)
Theme answers:
- ONE FLEW / THE CUCKOO'S NEST => "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" (18A: With 23-Across, second film to win all five major Academy Awards (1975)) (ONE FLEW appears directly "over" THE CUCKOO'S NEST)
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- THE EMPIRE SEKIRTS => "The Empire Strikes Back" (41A: Blockbuster sequel with an iconic plot twist (1980)) ("strikes" is written "back"wards)
- THE LAND TIME => "The Land Before Time" (50A: Animated dinosaur film that spawned 13 sequels) ("The Land" appears immediately "before""Time")
- TRANSLOSTLATION => "Lost in Translation" (67A: Romantic dramedy directed by Sofia Coppola (2003) ("Lost" appears "in"side "Translation")
- READING BURN => "Burn After Reading" (89A: Coen brothers farce involving the C.I.A. (2008) ("Burn" appears "after""Reading")
- JEOPARDY JEOPARDY => "Double Jeopardy" (97A: Crime thriller that takes some liberties with its namesake legal concept (1999)) ("Jeopardy" is "doubled")
- CROUCHING TIGER => "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" (114A: With an unseen portion of 128-Across, Oscar winning martial arts film (2000)) ("Dragon" is "hidden" in 128-Across: [DRAG ON]E'S FEET (128A: Deliberately procrastinate))
- A RIVER RUNS => "A River Runs Through It" (16D: Semiautobiographical film set in rural Montana (1992)) ("River" literally runs through "IT" (i.e. the letters "I" and "T," which appear circled in the grid)
- [SHOP] OF HORRORS => "Little Shop of Horrors" (74D: Dark comedy about a carnivorous plant (1960, 1986)) ("Shop" is made "little" by being forced into a single square) (crossing BI[SHOP] (72A: Certain chess piece)
Hypergamy (colloquially referred to as "dating up" or "marrying up") is a term used in social science for the act or practice of a person dating or marrying a spouse of higher caste, social status or sexual capital than themselves.
The antonym "hypogamy" refers to the inverse: marrying a person of lower social class or status (colloquially "marrying down"). Both terms were invented in the Indian subcontinent in the 19th century while translating classical Hindu law books, which used the Sanskrit terms anuloma and pratiloma, respectively, for the two concepts.
The term hypergyny is used to describe the overall practice of women marrying up, since the men would be marrying down. (wikipedia)
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I was slightly bothered by A RIVER RUNS (through) IT because it felt like "RUNS" shouldn't actually be in the grid. The "running through" part was represented visually, so you didn't need "RUNS." Would've been enough to have A RIVER running through "IT." A RIVER runs through IT. Boom, perfect. But I guess the idea is that A RIVER RUNS (as a phrase) goes "through" IT, which, OK, yeah, I guess that's defensible. I don't especially understand why the RIVER part is highlighted in the grid. It's the whole first part of the title that "runs through" IT, and anyway, we can all see the RIVER, there it is, in the answer, don't need it highlighted. But highlighting it doesn't hurt anyone, so ... if that's what you wanna do, why not? Not necessary, but it adds a little visual interest to the grid, so ... whatever. Knock yourself out. I think the little SHOP and the hidden DRAGON are by far the most inspired parts of this theme. The rest is ... fine.
I'm glad Sofia Coppola appeared today (as the director of "Lost in Translation") (67A) since it allows me a chance to elaborate (briefly) on why I think the term NEPO BABY (which appeared in the grid yesterday) is so *&$^ing stupid. I mean, yes, Sofia Coppola is the daughter of a very famous director, but so what? Are her movies not good? She's arguably one of the best living American directors. Did her father's fame and fortune give her advantages in establishing a filmmaking career? Undoubtedly. But rich and famous people have been breeding forever and hardly any of their kids actually become famous. Some of them try and fail miserably. NEPO BABY just sounds like some sneering, whiny, celebrity-obsessed sour grapes garbage, a term you can use to insult someone you don't like (more often than not, a girl/woman), or a *kind* of person you imagine is an embodiment of injustice, but who is really just ... a person—one who, like you, didn't choose their parents. Also ... children going into the same profession as their parents? How is this surprising, or even noteworthy? Doctors beget doctors, lawyers lawyers, teachers teachers, and (god help us) politicians politicians, every day everywhere all over the place. Bach had a lot of composer kids. These things happen (well, Bach-level stuff is pretty rare, but you see what I mean). So you go ahead and be mad about NEPO BABYs, you whiny babies— I'm gonna keep thinking Sofia Coppola and Liza Minnelli and Maya Hawke and Zoe Kazan and Willow Smith and Ben Stiller et al are just fine. Pretty great, even. (Further reading: "The Nepo Baby Discourse Is Rotting Our Brains")
There were some potentially tough words in today's puzzle. ATTICA! (25A: Land united by Theseus). As a prison name chanted in "Dog Day Afternoon," familiar. As the name of the peninsula that encompasses the entire Athens region, gotta think it's a lot less familiar. And crossing AMALIE!? (13D: Tampa's ___ Arena). Yeah, that seems like a possible speed bump, for sure.. GEOTAGS, also a potential stumper (60D: Digital location markers). It's just metadata added to pictures and videos establishing geographical location, and as digital-era terms go, it's a reasonably common term. But still seems like something that could trip up some solvers. MASAI Ujiri will definitely trip up some solvers, particularly the non-sportsy ones (85D: Longtime N.B.A. executive ___ Ujiri). I could picture the guy (an architect of the Toronto Raptors 2019 championship and the current team president) but absolutely could not remember his name. Will be very obscure to many solvers. I think that's it for answers that might cause widespread havoc. I'm not sure how I feel about SIPTEA (29D: Enjoy a cuppa). Let's see ... DRINKCOFFEE ... yeah, no, that's bad. EATASANDWICH ... also bad. I think SIPTEA is probably bad as well. SPILL THE TEA, great. But SIPTEA is just a random verb phrase. Weak tea. Also not a fan of plural SONNYS, not least because my brain insists it should be SUNNIES (80D: Bono and Liston). I know it shouldn't, but good luck arguing w/ my brain, it's very stubborn. The LIVE part of LIVEDJ took me a while (68D: Entertainment at many a wedding). Never occurred to me that the DJ might be anything else. Seems like dead DJs would be hard to come by. I mean, what would it cost to get Wolfman Jack or Alan Freed to do your wedding? A lot, probably.
See you next time.
Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld
Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld
P.S. having MAIN ACT (48A: What an opener precedes) and ACT (55D: Do something) in the same grid is very bad. If you use ACT in another phrase (like ACT OUT or ACT NATURALLY), that's not great, but it's not nearly as bad as just duping the word and leaving it hanging out there all by itself. Lazy, inattentive editing there. Absolutely no reason ACT should be in the grid. Takes no effort to rewrite the grid and make ACT go away.
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