Author: Amy Diaz

Competitors and their families hoping to reach the Scripps National Spelling Bee discuss competitive spelling and why Indian-American kids have had such success in the Bee in recent years in the Netflix documentary Spelling the Dream.

In the first minute or so of this upbeat, inspirational movie about kids and their dreams of spelling victory, I got a little verklempt over the scene of eight spellers being named co-champions of the 2019 Scripps National Spelling Bee. The kids’ joy, their parents’ joy — it’s an infectious shot of happiness at the beginning of the documentary, which actually follows kids preparing for the 2017 Scripps Bee.

We meet Akash (who, at 7, has many Bee years ahead of him), Shourav (who at 14 is at the end of his Bee career), Ashrita (who is 10) and Tejas (also 14). In interviews with them and their families we learn how they got interested in spelling, how they study and a bit about their family backgrounds. The documentary explains that Indian-American kids have won the Bee 12 years in a row. Families and commentators speculate about the many reasons why, one of which is that growing up in a household where kids are fluent in many different languages might prime kids to more actively think about words and language derivation. (You can see the kids doing the mental math when they ask spelling bee officials for the language of origin of a word: if it’s from this language, this sound is likely spelled with this mix of letters. It’s a fun element of the movie and one that helps to underline the literary, geographic and even artistic, sides of spelling, which I think often gets treated more like rote mechanics.)

The movie also demonstrates the importance of representation and talks to Balu Natarajan, a doctor who in 1985 was the first kid from an Indian-American family to win the Bee. Adults like CNN’s Sanjay Gupta and Fareed Zakaria, ESPN’s Kevin Negandhi (doing excellent sports commentary as the documentary focuses on the final competition) and comedian Hari Kondabolu discuss the wider cultural impact of Indian-American kids’ competition and victories in the Bee.

This movie is very G-rated, perfectly acceptable for a reading-and-writing-level elementary schooler, if you can get them interested (which, any academic-ish port in a learning-free quarantine-era storm). “Hey, come watch this movie about kids having fun, being on ESPN and winning trophies! mumble mumble spelling” is how I plan to sell it to my kids. B+

Rated TV-G by Netflix, where it is streaming, Spelling the Dream is an hour and 22 minutes long and directed by Sam Rega.

Musical-ish edition
Military Wives (PG-13)
Kristin Scott Thomas, Sharon Horgan.
The wives on a military base in the U.K. form a choir mostly as a form of getting their minds off their spouses’ deployments in this feel-good film. Horgan plays the wife of a master sergeant who is responsible for leading the wives’ social events; Thomas plays a colonel’s wife who sort of horns in on those duties to keep from dwelling on the recent death of her son as well as the absence of her husband. Though Thomas isn’t impressed with Horgan’s song choices and Horgan doesn’t really want to do the choir at all, they slowly come together and are able to lead the women to some success (measured both in “having fun” and in recognition for actual music-making skill). The movie has a light touch — maybe too light. While we get a fair amount about the camaraderie between the various women — highlighting the stories of the two leads as well as Amy James-Kelly, who plays a young wife, and Gaby French, a shy woman with a standout voice — the movie doesn’t get too deep into anybody’s story except maybe Thomas’. Military Wives is low-pressure comfort food. B- Released in May via video on demand, it’s available for rent or purchase and on Hulu.

*Wild Rose (R, 2019)
Jessie Buckley, Julie Walters.
A woman continues to chase her dreams of country stardom despite the hurdles of living in Scotland, being recently released from prison and trying to reconnect with (and financially support) her two kids in this 2019 movie which had a song — “Glasgow” — on the Oscar shortlist (which you can find at oscars.org/oscars/92nd-oscars-shortlists, and features the sort of semi-finalist round of Oscar hopefuls in nine categories; it’s worth checking out if you’re looking for 2019 movies you may have missed). Buckley plays Rose-Lynn, who leaves prison with fellow inmates cheering her on about being the next Dolly Parton. The twentysomething Rose-Lynn has a standout voice and has been singing with her band at Glasgow’s only country bar since she was 14. But she doesn’t have a clear sense of how to follow her musical dreams. What she does have is an apartment, bills to pay, an ankle monitor that requires her to be home by 7 p.m. and a difficult relationship with her mother, played by Julie Walters, who was raising her children when Rose-Lynn was in prison. She starts work as a housecleaner for a woman played by Sophie Okonedo who helps push her to get noticed, though Rose-Lynn isn’t completely honest about all aspects of her life. Buckley makes Rose-Lynn imperfect and frequently self-defeating but also charming and surprisingly optimistic and there is a believable approach to the character and her growth. (Buckley was nominated for a BAFTA for the role.) The movie makes good use of the music and conveying why country, specifically, matters so much to Rose-Lynn. A Available for rent or purchase and on Hulu.

*Sing Street (PG-13, 2016)
Ferdia Walsh-Peelo, Jack Reynor.
Fans of writer/director John Carney and his films Once (2007) and Begin Again (2013) need to check out this 2016 tale of teenage boy Conor (Walsh-Peelo), in 1985 Dublin, Ireland, who forms a band because he has told a girl he likes, Lucy Boynton as Raphina, that he has a band. As with those other movies, Sing Street (which Carney directs and co-writes) has a real love of music and its creation. Not only is Conor smitten with Raphina, he quickly becomes smitten with the act of songwriting, which he does with the help of his somewhat directionless older brother (Reynor) and his new school buddies (including Eamon, played by Mark McKenna, who loves music and his pet rabbits unselfconsciously). There is a real joy in how these goofy teens come together to form a band with music that skillfully riffs on variations of mid-1980s music. The movie has strong supporting performances, including Aiden Gillen and Maria Doyle Kennedy as Conor’s parents. A- Available for rent or purchase. Fun fact: a musical based on the movie was set to open on Broadway a few months ago. Wikipedia says it is now slated to open in the fall, at the earliest. Both a film soundtrack and an original cast recording are available for sale now.

Film Reviews by Amy

A singer looking to keep her career going and her assistant looking to start her career as a producer get tangled up in each other’s ambitions in The High Note, a basically enjoyable movie that has a lot of good ideas.

Grace Davis (Tracee Ellis Ross, real-life daughter of Diana Ross, so she knows whereof she acts) is a music superstar; Maggie Sherwoode (Dakota Johnson) is her personal assistant. Grace has worked hard to reach her status in the industry; as she explains, it’s not the norm for a middle-aged female musician to still be selling out arenas and raking in money from album sales. But as her longtime manager Jack Robertson (Ice Cube) pushes her to do a Las Vegas residency (which would have her playing the same set of greatest hits night after night), Grace wants to stretch herself artistically, put out a new album, keep touring. Her record company is less than excited about this desire.

Maggie is harried but basically happy to spend her days buying Grace’s strange green smoothies and picking up her dry cleaning. After all, it puts her in proximity to recording studios and artists and the music that is her life. In her spare time, Maggie takes a stab at remixing one of Grace’s live songs, hoping to show her boss that she can do more than just run errands. When Grace finds out, she likes Maggie’s cut of the song but Grace is less keen on Maggie’s many unsolicited opinions. Jack gives her what feels like very good advice: instead of trying to start her career by mucking up his plans with his superstar artist, find her own musician to produce. Enter David Cliff (Kelvin Harrison Jr.), handsome dude singer with a great voice.

The High Note isn’t completely smooth, particularly in how the plot unfolds. I said it has a lot of good ideas, and it does, but it doesn’t seem to always know how to play out the ideas. The first two thirds of the movie is stronger than the last third, which contains a plot point that feels unnecessary. I wish the movie had found less conventional, more interesting ways to wrap up its various relationships.

For me, though, this bumpy ending didn’t diminish my enjoyment of the movie overall.

I like the way the movie seems to argue for taking big chances in your career and going for opportunities that seem beyond your reach but also sees value in experience and slogging it out in the trenches to earn a shot. Likewise, The High Note seems to take a very realistic view of Grace’s career — it’s not the “wrong” choice for her to do the residency or make the new album. The movie also has a nice mutual respect of and admiration for skills between these women. Grace is demanding and Maggie is overeager but there is no All About Eve-ing here, no The Devil Wears Prada-like judgment that somebody is doing life wrong.

Ross and Johnson probably get a lot of the credit for making these characters feel like believable women in their circumstances (they also get mostly good material to work with). I’ve always liked both of these actresses and their ability to balance comedy and deeper emotion.

And the movie has some solid supporting performances. There is the exact right amount of Ice Cube. Kelvin Harrison Jr. might be overshadowed by Johnson and Ross but he is very charming. Zoe Chao, who plays Maggie’s roommate, is delightful. She is a young surgeon primarily interested in getting sleep and, at a party Maggie brings her to, stuffing as much appetizer cheese as she can into her purse. She helps add moments of comedy that put this movie into, I guess, dramedy territory from a more straightforward drama. Or maybe the movie isn’t so much a drama as a romance but where the most interesting romances are between the characters and their careers and industry. B

Rated PG-13 for some strong language, and suggestive references, according to the MPA. Directed by Nisha Ganatra with a screenplay by Flora Greeson, The High Note is an hour and 53 minutes long and is distributed by Focus Features. Like a lot of recent Focus Features releases, The High Note is available for $19.99 for a 48-hour rental.