Trivial Pursuits

The Wordle craze has created a golden age for movie fact fiends.

Not since the number-filled grids of Sudoku briefly made dying print newspapers look viable has a daily game enjoyed viral success like what we’re seeing with Wordle. That success is largely because it’s fun (if often frustrating) to fill in Wordle’s five-letter grids. But it’s also because Wordle’s creators have made it so easy to share your results via an eye-catching graphic representation of success and failure. If you play, you likely don’t just play. You share your results via social media or in text chains in which your wife beats you 9 days out of 10. (That last part may be strictly autobiographical.)

Wordle’s success has inspired other game-makers to apply its basic concepts to subjects beyond the dictionary. These include Heardle, which asks players to identify a song based on a snippet that grows that increasingly long. It’s fun, until you start to realize you’re much better at songs released before the turn of the millennium than anything from the past two decades and start worrying about what that means. (Again, this might be a case of autobiographical details sneaking into the assessment.)

But, what, you’re asking, about movies? They’re well represented, too. I find myself using my down time (i.e. when I should be writing) to play an expanding assortment of movie-themed online games that demand only a few moments and (sometimes) reward my ability to recall movie images and details. What follows is a quick survey of what’s out there. And if we’ve missed any, let us know in the comments. (All screenshots are from yesterday’s games. So don’t worry about spoilers.)

Framed (framed.wtf)

How it Works: Framed is the simplest and most Wordle-esque of the new wave of movie games. Players have six chances to guess a movie based on images from the film. The first is the most obscure, offering the fewest identifiable elements, and they grow increasingly rich in information as the game progresses. (See above for an example.)

Is it Fun?: Very! Unless you have an eidetic memory, you’ll probably work through each day’s puzzle via process of elimination. OK, this looks post-apocalyptic. Is it a zombie movie? No? Then what is it? Etc. Twitter posts that use film stills with no identification have long nudged me toward madness, leaving me scrambling to figure out who I’m looking at and in what movie they appear. This is like that, but with a satisfying conclusion, since Framed reveals the answer, rather than forcing me to use a reverse image search app or other desperate measures. The only downside: the game leans heavily toward films of relatively fresh vintage. That’s at least partly because it draws its images from the (otherwise very cool) image database Shotdeck, which is currently much better stocked with images from recent films than films of yore. (Searching “Barbara Stanwyck" yields a whole page of results, for instance, but they’re all from Double Indemnity, which I think I could guess within a couple of rounds.)

Box Office Game (boxofficega.me)

How it Works: Inspired by a recurring feature on the Blank Check podcast in which host David Sims quizzes co-host Griffin Newman, Box Office Game challenges players to identify the top five domestic releases in a specific week, using the fewest clues possible. Players are given the film’s box office total, distributor, and the number of weeks, on the weekend in question, it had been in release. Sacrificing some points uncovers clues that reveal aspects like the film’s budget (not that useful), the names of the three lead actors (often useful), the tagline (the most useful, in my experience), or even a capsule description of its plot (probably the most useful at all, but at the cost of a lot of points). 

Is it Fun?: Absolutely! Though it can be frustrating to turn over clue after clue for a movie you’re this close to remembering or to attempt to figure out which Fast and Furious sequel came out in 2009 or whether number three this week is Madea Goes to Jail or Madea’s Witness Protection. The mechanics of the game make it easier for desktop users than mobile users, but it’s still fun on either platform. Also fun: when Newman, whose savant-like recall of old box office results led to the game’s creation, plays and posts his score.

Moviedle (moviedle.app)

How it Works: Like Heardle, Moviedle asks players to recognize something with which they’re likely familiar via snippets. Unlike Heardle, Moviedle gives players the whole thing at once, only at lightning speed. Each daily entry compresses an entire film into a rapid-fire barrage of images. The first burst is one second long, the second two, and so on. Players can’t pause. They can only hope they’ll pick up enough recognizable shots to piece together the movie they’re watching in its entirety (if a little faster than normal.)

Is it Fun?: This might be the most purely fun of the post-Wordle movie games if only because the experience of seeing a feature film reduced to the movie equivalent of a fast-talking Micro Machines ad (a link for our younger readers) is weirdly entrancing.

Actorle (actorle.com)

How it Works: Players are given a selected version of an actor’s filmography and try to guess the actor based on film titles rendered as “x”s, plus the films’ genres, years of release, and IMDb ratings.

Is it Fun?: Yes, but it’s tough! I played a round the other night that began with me guessing Christopher Lee and Anthony Hopkins before arriving at an answer far-removed from either. (I think it was Julie Andrews?) The game does offer additional clues along the way, providing an indication as to how close you are in age to the right answer, and removing the Xs from any titles on the list that feature actors you’ve already guessed. But this is either the most challenging of the crop or it requires a set of skills I don’t possess in abundance. That doesn’t mean I won’t be playing, however.

BONUS: Filmwise’s Invisibles Quizes

These predate Wordle, and they’re weekly not daily, but, hey, who cares? It’s another frame guessing game offering stills from movies, only this time the actors have been erased, apart from their clothes. Can you identify the films without their stars? Players have to wait a week for answers, making this a game too maddening for me to play. But it’s a clever concept whose execution is bizarre and often strangely beautiful. Ever wonder what, say, Stand By Me would look like if all the characters visited Claude Raines’s lab? Wonder no more!

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