'As Smart As They Are' traces the collaboration between One Ring Zero, the Brooklyn house-band for McSweeney's Publishing, and an ensemble cast of award-winning authors, each of whom contributed original lyrics. Original lyrics they are. Author Myla Goldberg torments guest singer Syd Straw with tongue twisting, five star vocabulary words. Paul Auster riffs on the ills of Cincinatti and the Iraq war. The film's title, in fact, comes from the inspired dialogue of a talking cockroach.