O | K | O | K | T | I | L | D | A | Z | E | S | T | ||
P | E | P | E | A | D | O | R | N | I | N | T | O | ||
S | E | E | R | R | O | B | O | T | P | S | A | T | ||
P | R | O | F | I | L | E | P | I | C | T | U | R | E | |
A | S | I | F | Q | U | I | E | T | S | |||||
W | A | T | E | R | F | E | A | T | U | R | E | |||
O | L | I | N | E | B | L | E | E | D | C | A | P | ||
O | B | O | E | C | O | I | N | S | M | O | N | O | ||
F | A | N | B | O | O | B | S | B | I | R | D | S | ||
W | A | L | K | I | E | T | A | L | K | I | E | |||
O | F | F | E | N | D | A | L | E | S | |||||
F | L | I | C | K | O | F | A | S | W | I | T | C | H | |
F | A | V | A | P | I | N | E | D | I | R | O | N | ||
A | M | E | N | E | N | T | E | R | M | E | M | O | ||
L | E | S | T | N | E | E | D | Y | E | W | E | S |
The version of this puzzle I originally submitted to the Times had five theme entries and only one movie title for each clue. The editors thought just one title might be a bit too tough, which I think was the right call. They also asked if I could try a version without TRADE SHOW ["Freaky Friday"?], the weakest themer of the original set.
I went back to the drawing board (thesaurus.com page for "movie") and was very happy to realize FLICK OF A SWITCH could work — not only as part of a 14-letter symmetrical pair, but with the exact same clue. Losing TRADE SHOW also meant losing my favorite entry, CLING FILM ["Free Solo?"], but what can you do.
As far as the fill goes, I'm happy about MILE TIME and ZIP TIE. I can't decide if the (unintentional) repeating letter stack in the NW corner is fun or distracting, but it's a bit late to worry about that now. I'm just psyched for this to be published!