Film Adaptations (2024)

Jump to: Tricky Clues | Today’s Theme

SUNDAY PUZZLE — Jeffrey Lease, of Granite Bay, Calif., designs printed circuit boards for cellphones at Google. He writes, “The process of designing a board and getting all the connections to fit is its own type of puzzle, so perhaps it’s not surprising that my job and hobby overlap.” Crosswords are his favorite puzzles to do, but he’s also a fan of Wordle and Connections. This is Jeff’s first crossword for The Times. Another has been accepted, and he is already working on a third.

This grid, with its chaotic yet harmonious visual theme, actually reminds me of a circuit board, in a delightful way, tightly packed with a lot of diverse parts. It’s also a lot like a well-plotted mystery movie; each time you think, “Aha! Got it!,” another tactic is required to move forward.

Today’s Theme

There are nine examples of this inventive theme set. Six are able to constrain themselves in one entry, at 41-, 50-, 67-, 89- and 97-Across, and 74-Down; three others expand their boundaries at 18-/23-Across, 114-/128-Across, and 16-Down, with a little help from 41-Across. There’s one rebus, and there’s a mythical creature that doesn’t actually show its fire-breathing face in the puzzle. All of these entries are popular films, as hinted at by the puzzle’s title, “Film Adaptations,” but they’re very cleverly concealed.

Each of those films has an element in its title that can be seen as an “indicator” in a cryptic clue. Take 67-Across, which is one of the more “guessable” examples, in my opinion (although that’s probably a very personal take in a puzzle like this). “Romantic dramedy directed by Sofia Coppola (2003)” is “Lost in Translation,” no doubt about it. It doesn’t fit, though, and this is where the indicator comes in — that little “in.” The answer is TRANSLOSTLATION: “Lost” in “Translation.”