It’s Oscar night, so it’s time to sit back and enjoy a movie puzzle. Seven phrases contain the names of Oscar-winning film directors that have been split apart by a letter. The theme clues contain parenthetical movie titles which represent films for which these directors won the Academy Award for best director.
- 24A: [Sternums (“Platoon”)] is BREASTBONES, containing Oliver STONE cut by a B.
- 45A: [“Dead Man’s Party” band with a rhyming name (“Parasite”)] is OINGO BOINGO, with BONG Joon-Ho cut by an I.
- 67A: [Attractive to viewers (“Brokeback Mountain”)] is TELEGENIC, with Ang LEE cut by a G.
- 69A: [Brand that touts itself as “The King of Beers” (“The Sound of Music”)] is BUDWEISER, with Robert WISE cut by an E.
- 83A: [Health clinic, e.g. (“It Happened One Night”)] is MEDICAL PRACTICE, with Frank CAPRA cut by an L.
- 100A: [Texas Revolution figure for whom Texas’s largest city is named (“The Treasure of the Sierra Madre”)] is SAM HOUSTON, with John HUSTON cut by an O.
- 104A: [Bitter, public feud (“The Quiet Man”)] is WAR OF WORDS, with John Ford cut by a W.
The revealer at 113A: [Oscar-winning film whose Oscar-winning director is spelled out by the letters cutting the circled Oscar-winning directors] is “THE HURT LOCKER.” That was directed by Kathryn BIGELOW, whose name cuts through the other directors’ names.
Fun fact: Kathryn Bigelow’s name also has the unique property of being a heterogram — a word where every letter appears only once each. I made use of that fact for a metapuzzle back in September 2016, although back then I described her name as an isogram. That’s also true, except an isogram refers to a word where each letter appears the same number of times, so a word where every letter appears twice (as in INTESTINES) counts as an isogram. A heterogram is a type of isogram, just one where each letter appears only once.
Some other answers and clues:
- 59A: [Movie star, e.g., briefly] is CELEB. This wasn’t meant as a bonus movie-related answer, but it ended up crossing the center of the grid.
- 82A: [Man’s name found in “line drawings”] is NED, literally hiding in “line drawings.”
- 118A: [“Such a strange and meaningless word,” per the rock musician Davey Havok] is EMO. Quite the colorful quote about one of the more disputed terms in music, no? Justin Sayles at the Ringer wrote a glossary of emo-related terms that I’ll probably consult for a few EMO clues.
- 127A: [Subject of the Stargate Project, for which the CIA recruited alleged mind readers] is ESP. It’s a pretty wild story.
- 5D: [Drive while dreaming?] is AMBITION. “Drive” means “energy” and “dreaming” refers to aspirations, although maybe it’s a sign of wild ambition if you’re driving a car while you’re asleep.
- 35D / 60D: [With 60 Down, storied infiltrator of a thieves’ den] is ALI / BABA. Last week we had this answer as a one-word entry, now we have it as two. It’s odd that they ended up in the same column in the grid.
- 43D / 40D: [With 40 Down, hard-boiled hors d’oeuvre] is DEVILED / EGG. I didn’t clue it this way, but a single deviled egg played a role in one of my favorite “Futurama” gags.
- 46D: [The Most ___ ___ (limited-edition cookie released in 2023)] is OREO. It’s been described as “an Oreo stuffed with Oreos.” Here’s hoping we never run out of weird ways to clue this word.
- 59D / 72A: [With 72 Across, soft drinks sold since 1886] is COCA / COLAS. The third of three cross-referenced answers in this puzzle. I didn’t plan any of them. Sometimes the puzzle just works out that way.
- 88D is “SPARE ME” and right next to it at 89D is “COME NOW,” both clued as [“Oh, please”]. Hopefully the repetition gives you a better reaction than the clues’ tone would suggest.
Finally, be aware that next week’s puzzle has a meta, though I believe it will be easier than the one from Super Bowl Sunday.
