Synopsis
Every January, the country’s largest jigsaw puzzle contest is held in St. Paul, Minnesota. Wicker Kittens invites you to choose your favorite team and watch them try to put the pieces back together.
2014 Directed by Amy C. Elliott
Every January, the country’s largest jigsaw puzzle contest is held in St. Paul, Minnesota. Wicker Kittens invites you to choose your favorite team and watch them try to put the pieces back together.
I didn’t expect the competitive puzzlers to be some of the chillest of the niche competitor documentary subjects, but they really did not have any drama. The camera work was a little zoom-crazy and I wish there was more movie than the 53 minutes we got, but it did leave me feeling delighted.
It seems a bit strange that a documentary about a jigsaw puzzle competition in Minnesota would be one of the inaugural films in the SXSports program, but having seen 'Wicker Kittens,' the method behind the madness is revealed. Despite being about a subject that may not be appealing to many audiences, the competitive nature of the teams involved becomes strangely gripping. The filmmakers know just how quirky and eccentric many of the participants are, and allow this humor to shine in a way that never comes across as mean-spirited. This isn't an edgy doc, but it isn't meant to be; I'd recommend it as a palette cleanser for a rough day.
William Lindus
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As far as documentaries about obscure competitions go, this is on the low end unfortunately. Some of them are quirky but the shrillness of some of these subjects were a bit too much for me. I wish they got into more strategies and such but this is more of a fly on the wall type of doc.
A hilarious, easily accessible documentary about competitive jigsaw puzzle tournaments. The characters are great, the subject matter is fresh and treated fairly and the movie is a brisk 70+ minutes. I'd show this to my parents in a heartbeat and I'm relatively sure they'd love it.
Cute doc. Just friends hanging out, solving jigsaws, trying to get by in the cut throat would of puzzle competition.
obsessed with the puzzling community more than puzzling itself, and this was a lovely watch while working on a puzzle I just got!
It's hard to imagine a more Minnesota-esque pop doc than this. Even the soundtrack by Portrait of a Drowned Man captures the twin cities post rock sound founded by acts like Hüsker Dü. There isn't as much exploration of the people featured in the film as I might have liked, which suggests it might have benefitted from either fewer folks featured or a longer running time, but the second half picks up the pace and action to compensate. Ultimately, it's an entertaining doc, just a bit thin on the human angle similar docs often focus on (e.g., Chicken People or Bible Quiz).
one of these days i'll be really good at speed puzzling lol. super cute doc about a really niche group of people, being passionate about something they love.