Each week, the Cinematrix team gathers to review the many grid options that have been designed by Joe Reid, Britina Cheng, and anyone else who felt inspired to put one together. At this point, one year into the game, we’ve developed a keen sense of whether a typical Cinematrix player will find a given grid challenging (good!) or frustrating (bad!). Invariably, there are grids that come up in discussion that we think are great but elect not to use out of concern that too many players will find them discouraging (bad!).
But today’s a special day: Cinematrix’s one-year anniversary. And special days call for special grids, such as this set of six toughies that were originally shelved but have remained in our hearts. Your mileage may vary on how difficult any one of these Cinemasochist grids is, but let’s see how you fare with them all. (Click the link at the top of each entry to play that edition.)
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Neil’s Monty Python troupe
When a member of the Cinematrix team has a birthday, they’re encouraged to create a grid inspired by their favorite movies. I used the occasion to submit a Monty Python grid that ended up thrown to the floor in Cinematrix HQ. We went with my back-up Dr. Strangelove grid instead. —Neil Janowitz
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Britina’s ’90s Hong Kong trio
This one’s for the dreamy romantics and for me, since Happy Together is in my top four Letterboxd. Note: The release date here does include the turn of the millennium. —Britina Cheng
➼ Play the Hong Kong grid here.
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Emily’s Vulture Boyfriends
Some of Vulture Comedy Slack’s favorite actors have yet to make their Cinematrix debut for the simple and, frankly, egregious fact that they just don’t have enough credits that fit our categories. Still, it seems a shame that these three are absent from the Cinematrix archive, so I sought to remedy that. (Hint: There’s only one movie that fits in the Conner O’Malley x Title Contains ‘The’ intersection, so choose wisely.) –Emily Palmer Heller
➼ Play the Boyfriends grid here.
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Joe’s Scare Pairs
I tried to make this grid work for our Halloween-week festivities, but ultimately the (remarkable) filmography of scream queen P.J. Soles and the horror output of the great George C. Scott were too niche. –Joe Reid
➼ Play the Scare Pairs grid here.
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Alison’s Flirty ’30s Girlies
This one goes out to the TCM junkies who dream of Clark Gable’s “Walls of Jericho” and snappy banter with the likes of William Powell. In other words, it’s a bit too esoteric for the main feed. —Alison Morgenstern
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Anusha’s Voicey Girls
A shameless attempt to satisfy my dream of completing a grid using three of my favorite semi-niche animated films featuring strong, multi-faceted female characters. If “Passes the Bechdel Test” were a category we could reliably use, trust that it would have been deployed here. —Anusha Praturu
