MGWCC crossword 3:27
meta 1 or so 
[4.50 avg; 10 ratings] rate it
hello, and welcome to episode #910 of matt gaffney’s weekly crossword contest, a week 1 guest puzzle by Jeffrey Harris (a.k.a. JanglerNPL) called “Mixed Reviews”. what are the theme answers? four 14-letter answers are all parts of fictional movie reviews, presumably for the same film:
- {Bad: “I only saw this movie ___, and that was quite enough for me”} ONCE IN THEATERS. could be a review of any movie.
- {Good: “I love the stylish way Soderbergh films our heroes as they ___”} ENTER THE CASINO. okay, well, this is quite a bit more specific—steven soderbergh and a casino pretty much narrows it down to the ocean’s trilogy.
- {Bad: “Clooney and Pitt? Ugh! If it were my movie, I’d’ve ___”} CAST NEITHER ONE. not narrowing it down any further, but this does confirm which series we’re talking about.
- {Good: “Of all the movies that ___, this is probably my favorite!”} CENTER ON A HEIST. this may be the point at which it’s appropriate for me to admit i have seen none of the ocean’s films, but my understanding is that all of them center on heists.
so how are we supposed to know which movie from the trilogy these reviews are all about? well, they’re not just “mixed” reviews in the sense of some of them being good and some bad—they’re all anagrams of each other! and indeed, they are all anagrams of the movie title, which therefore must be OCEAN’S THIRTEEN. and yes, all of these film titles used the spell-out name of the number rather than the numerals 11/12/13.
i loved this meta. younger solvers may not remember the bad old days of the 2000’s (and probably before, but i wasn’t around for the even worse, even older days) when “four made-up phrases that are anagrams of each other” was a common crossword theme type. jeffrey has subverted the trope to turn it into four coherent phrases that can all be used in reviews of the same movie, while themselves being anagrams of the movie title! that’s nothing short of astonishing. sure, two of them are generic and could be applied to almost any movie, but then you also have the ones with CASINO and HEIST. that’s a magnificent find.
a little birdie told me that there were many wrong answers submitted for this meta, rather unusually for a week 1. i can only assume these were all or almost all ocean’s eleven. (i figure anybody who thought about it hard enough to consider TWELVE as a possibility would have seen the light and gone with THIRTEEN.) i have some sympathy for this, but it is a careless error—there are pretty famously three movies in this franchise that all have these actors, director, setting, and plot. (ocean’s 8 has a heist, but not soderbergh, pitt, or clooney, and it’s a heist at the met gala, not a casino.) so some consideration as to what might distinguish one from the others is clearly warranted, and the anagrams are hinted by the title, and not that hard to notice once you start thinking about why the puzzle is constructed the way it is.
other bits:
- {Team that’s 1-7, as of the writing of this clue} JETS. 2-7 now, apparently. break up the jets! i thought this might have been the NBA’s brooklyn NETS, who were also 1-7 (and now 1-9).
- {Most common papal name, with 21} JOHN. so this is interesting—the most recent pope JOHN was john xxiii. however, john xvi was an antipope who threw enough confusion into the works that the next pope john chose the number xvii, and then there was no john xx because of a medieval clerical error—really, the most clerical of clerical errors.
- {State that’s home to the Sundance Film Festival} UTAH. for now! the next sundance (march 2026) will be in utah, but it’s moving to boulder, colorado starting in 2027.
that’s all i’ve got. how’d you like this one?
Puzzle: MGWCC; Rating: 4 stars
Color me one of those lazy solvers that bit on Ocean’s Eleven. I predict that Joon is correct, though, and I’ll have a fair amount of company.
I also didnt spend enough effort to get past Ocean’s Eleven, BUT for what its worth, I took the “Once” in “Once in the theaters” to point to Spanish for eleven, and confirmation of the answer.
Ditto for me. Besides, Ocean’s 11 is a well-known movie. Ocean’s 12 and 13 are not so well-known.
I fell into the same trap.
Puzzle: MGWCC; Rating: 5 stars
Such a brilliant construction. When I realized what I was going on, I was like, “There’s no way he found four coherent…okay, yes he did!” Really cool.
Puzzle: MGWCC; Rating: 4.5 stars
I was flabbergasted by the number of solvers who seemed to be falling for alternative entries, whichever the Oceans film. My very first realization was that the phrases were anagrams, and until I realized that the associated clues were actually solving hints – I struggled to derive yet a 5th anagram.
The four anagrams PLUS a classic cryptic puzzle style title? Even on a Week One, “I know a movie directed by Soderbergh about a casino with Clooney and Pitt, so my work here is done”?
Puzzle: MGWCC; Rating: 4.5 stars
I was another careless solver. There goes my last hope for a 💯 streak. Haha.
I came about this backwards – I used IMDB to confirm that Soderbergh, Clooney, et. al. from the clues had a nexus in the “Ocean’s …” movies. I then noticed that all 4 themes contained “oceans”, then saw that the leftover letters would anagram to 13.
I submitted a spectacularly wrong answer…from ONCE IN THEATERS noticed that all of the themers had the letters to THEATERS in them, and that taking those out left the letters for ENCINO so, of course, it had to be Encino Man. Seemed to fit the title, and deciding all the references to the Ocean’s movies were just a flock of red herrings took minimal self-delusion from that point.
Anybody else submit ENCINO MAN? Anybody? Is this thing on?
If you had submitted your reasoning to Matt, he likely would have had to think about that one for a minute before not giving you credit. :)
As a lapsed Catholic who was mighty confused about the papal clue (knowing only John XXIII), thank you for the insight! I had no idea….
Chiming in way too late here.
I saw CASINO HEAT HEIST in three themers. All DeNiro movies. (Charlize) THERON was in the fourth themer.
I submitted MEN OF HONOR , the only movie they both starred in.
Alas!
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