Sunday, April 1, 2012

Word Wars


     Nerd Culture fascinates me.  I love looking at small pockets of our society that holds outcast, quirky, and eccentric members that reject social norms and dedicate themselves to their passion.  The documentary that shoved me into this sub-genre was “Spellbound” a 2002 documentary that highlights contestants for the Scripts National Spelling Bee.  I have now watched many different nerd-docs and have seen a formula develop among them.  Highlight the quirkiest, most unconventional ones of the bunch along with ones that have a good shot of being successful, and follow their daily preparation and document their progress toward their goal.  With the popularity of “Words with Friends” the idea behind Word Wars, a documentary that showcases the world’s top Scrabble players, intrigued me.  As I start watching this movie I find myself thinking that this is just “Spellbound” all grown up.  That kind of disappoints me that it starts looking like the same movie but with adults.  All of that changes when Marlon is introduced into the picture.  In my opinion this guy is the greatest reason to watch this movie.  Although I have stated that I love nerd culture and I love your stereotypical nerds, Marlon breaks the mold of the stereotypical Scrabble player.  Marlon is a very aggressive in your face African American gentleman that smokes lots of weed and at one point in the movie picks up a hooker on camera before a tournament.  When you contrast him with “GI Joel” another player that fits every nerdy stereotype you can think of on top of having to constantly spit up stomach juice from his terrible acid reflux and gastrointestinal problems for which he got his nickname, you will find Marlon is the little nugget of gold in this movie.  Marlon separated this movie from any nerd-doc I have ever seen.  On top of all of his antics, he is a phenomenal Scrabble player.  Every other person that gets highlighted in this movie fits a mental image of a typical Scrabble player.  The fact that this guy who has such strong opinions about what he calls “Amerikkka with 3 k’s”   and openly hates the English Language for stripping his ancestors of their Afrikan language is such a student of the English language and submerses himself in a culture of nerdy white guys and old ladies is well worth 80 minutes of your life.  If you are looking for a nerd-doc this movie will deliver that as well.  This is the ultimate in “don’t judge a book by its cover” especially when the dreadlocked book you are playing can drop words like xenogamy(71pts) and lambrequin(73pts) on you after stepping outside for a blunt.  This movie really does have more appeal than just that of Scrabble players.  I was able to learn a little about Scrabble, but a lot about those who dedicate so much time and effort to this game. 



No comments:

Post a Comment