Selah And The Spades

Finally peeped this Amazon Studios off-beat teen flick by writer/director Tayarisha Poe.

The film centers around a 17-year-old black female, Selah (Lovie Simone). She’s an A student who captains a spirit squad, and doesn’t have sex, but these things don’t make her a good girl.  Good girls don’t deal drugs, and Selah is not only an experienced dope pusher at the prestigious boarding school she attends somewhere outside Philadelphia – she also runs a tight ship. Making certain the Spades are the most dominant school clicks or what they call “factions” around campus. There is a tenuous truce between Selah’s Spades and the other factions, which often hints of an interesting backstory from their sophomore year. However, at this point, with graduation looming quickly ahead, Selah’s mind is more focused on finding a successor. She has her right-hand man Maxxie (Jharrel Jerome) who’s down for whatever abuse she doles out, but he’ll also be graduating, so she sets her sights on the new girl, Paloma (Celeste O’Connor), a real cutie with an eye for photography. Paloma seems to have a strong enough sense of self that she wouldn’t fall so easily into Selah’s clutches, but I guess everyone wants to fit in when you’re new to a world, and boy is this an uneasy world.

The casting is good. I was a little more impressed with Celeste than Lovie, but both strong young actresses. Obviously, Poe, this new, young filmmaker has style, the clean, natural, yet depressing beauty of the film is well-shot and fits the mood of the piece.  But that’s where I had trouble with the movie, it’s just not engaging.  It’s original, especially considering the main characters are black and they’re ruling in a setting you don’t normally get to see black people. And the tone is intentionally off-putting and done to perfection.  But it’s a bad sign when I’m watching a movie and can’t wait until it ends. It’s not as if I were going to stop watching it and dismiss it, but at the same time, I was so looking forward to not having to watch it anymore.  Which makes me feel bad because once again, I feel like I’m throwing a female filmmaker under the bus.  The exact opposite of what I want to do with my site. And the film is being turned into a series, so I don’t want to discourage people from giving that a chance.  But, what can I say, I calls it as I sees it.

@largeassmovieblogs rating 2.5 outta 5