Percussion in pagoda / MON 11-19-18 / Streamer of Game of Thrones / Noted 1965 film / Fluid 2017 film / Lacking depth informally

Constructor: Jim Hilger

Relative difficulty: Medium (3:09)

THEME: the blank of blank — movie titles that follow that pattern, each of them 15 letters long

Theme answers:

• "THE COLOR OF MONEY" (20A: "Green" 1986 film?)
• "THE SHAPE OF WATER" (36A: "Fluid" 2017 film?)
• "THE SOUND OF MUSIC" (47A: "Noted" 1965 film?)

Word of the Day: Carl ORFF (56A: Carl who composed "Carmina Burana") —

Carl Heinrich Maria Orff (German: [ˈɔɐ̯f]; 10 July 1895 – 29 March 1982) was a German composer, best known for his cantata Carmina Burana (1937). In addition to his career as a composer, Orff developed an influential approach toward music education for children. [...] The Orff Schulwerk, or simply the Orff Approach, is a developmental approach used in music education. It combines music, movement, drama, and speech into lessons that are similar to child's world of play. It was developed by the German composer Carl Orff (1895–1982) and colleague Gunild Keetman during the 1920s. Carl Orff worked until the end of his life to continue the development and spread of his teaching method. 

The Orff Approach is now used throughout the world to teach students in a natural and comfortable environment. The term "schulwerk" is German for (literally) "school work" or "schooling", in this regard in the area of music. (wikipedia)

• • •

First: TWOD = Two-D i.e. two-dimensional (47D)
(yes, it's bad...)
(so much email about this...)
(OK, moving on...)

These movies do share a certain quality. Unfortunately that quality is solely structural (THE blank OF blank where both blanks are five letters long), which makes cluing coherence a real problem. The quotation-marks thing in the cluing just does not work. If all the quoted words had been colors, or had all been words might use to describe movies, or had had any kind of coherence whatsoever, well OK. But this is just random words put in "quotation marks"—why? "Fluid" 2017 film? That ... what is that? That's not a term you'd use for film. It makes no sense to call a movie "fluid"? "Noted," sure. "Green," uh, maybe? Maybe the film is ecological, somehow? But "fluid"? Gah. And the fill here is really rough. Way way too rough for a Monday, and that just shouldn't be. This theme is not taxing. Three 15s. That's it. No reason you can't create a smooth, humming grid around that framework. But here I am looking at WHELM. Pffffff.


I had minor trouble all over the place, so I guess I should be happy my time came out pretty much dead normal. I could picture a pagoda, but the "percussion" there? I was thinking something much more drumlike, and therefore couldn't recall it. "OH BOY" took an odd lot of work (6D: "Yippee!"). First thought was "OH YAY!" (I had the last "Y"). Thought [Story] was a level of a building. Clue on FLUFF is accurate enough but even with FLU- I wasn't sure. Hey, why is SELF the answer for 34A: Subject most familiar to a portrait painter. I honestly have no idea what this means. I know that there are such things as self-portraits (Van Gogh has a famous one; Rembrandt did a bunch), but John Singer Sargent was a portrait painter—in that he painted people's portraits. Why would SELF be "most familiar" to him? If there's wordplay here ... well, I demand a "?", firstly. And secondly, I don't get it. Use a specific painter, or throw this clue in the garbage.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]