Category: Film Reviews by Amy

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.

A teenage girl from the heart of the San Fernando Valley expands her horizons in Valley Girl, a, like, totally fun high school-set rom-com musical.
I suppose I should stipulate that I haven’t seen the 1983 Nicholas Cage-fronted Valley Girl. This musical adaptation of that is so spot-on I don’t think I want to.
This tale of a sunbaked suburbia, the afternoons at the Galleria and the scary unknown that is “the other side of the hills” (downtown Hollywood) is actually told in flashback by a present-day mom (Alicia Silverstone in a brilliant bit of casting) telling her teenage daughter (Camila Morrone) about her big high school romance. Back in the 1980s day, Encino native Julie (Jessica Rothe, star of the Happy Death Day movies and once again giving out just the right energy) is dating the “perfect” guy, tennis star Mickey (Logan Paul), and spends her free time hanging out with her buddies at the mall. But she wants to find new adventure, maybe even go into Hollywood, that haven of vice that the Valley children have clearly been made to fear.
It takes a beach outing to bring the MTV-loving crowd of the Valley into the path of the punk crowd from Hollywood. Julie has a brief meeting with Randy (Josh Whitehouse), who, along with his rocker friends, later shows up at a Valley party. They hit it off and he brings her to Hollywood to hang out at a club where his band plays.
Julie quickly dumps Mickey and revels in this new relationship, one without the pressures of high school popularity and that even reawakens her interest in fashion design and following a different path than the one her parents (an excellent Judy Greer and Rob Huebel) set out for her. But Randy isn’t as interested in bending to experience her world as she is to experience his, so, like, friction.
Look, if I say “pastel plaids on characters singing the Go-Gos’ ‘We Got the Beat’ while dancing around a fountain at a thriving 1980s mall” and you say “blech, no thank you” then you already know where you stand on this movie. I, watching this by myself, clapped and said, out loud, “delightful!” at that early scene and my opinion did not change. There is a fight scene (featuring a character who feels like he’s doing “Johnny from The Karate Kid” cosplay for the whole movie) scored to Duran Duran’s “Rio” after a tension-filled scene scored to “Safety Dance.” “Kids in America” is used to underline a character’s ennui and “Girls Just Want to Have Fun” helps demonstrate her longing for Something More. I said “yay!” at more than one song cue and could not keep from occasionally singing along (which is a thing you don’t have to suppress watching movies on the couch). And having Alicia Silverstone, queen of a 1990s glossy California teenager movie, as the mom is just a chef’s kiss touch of perfection. This movie, this mix tape of 1980s music and visuals and vibe, knows what it is and delivers its tone and blend of high-school-drama romance, self-conscious nostalgia and genuine coming of age story beats (Judy Greer saying “au revoir” actually made me tear up) perfectly. A-
Rated PG-13 for teen partying, language, some suggestive material, and brief nudity, according to the MPA. Directed by Rachel Lee Goldberg with a screenplay by Amy Talkington, Valley Girl is an hour and 42 minutes long and distributed by MGM. Available for rent.

Music returns to Penuche’s Music Hall

By Michael Witthaus
[email protected]

With limited reopening of businesses in New Hampshire, open air dining — with strict social distancing guidelines — returned to Penuche’s Music Hall on May 18, along with live music, with musicians playing acoustic on the corner of Elm and Lowell streets. Brad Bosse kicked off the return of live music in downtown Manchester at 1 p.m. on May 18, with a cover of Ben Harper’s “Steal My Kisses” as Penuche’s Music Hall served diners at every table. Amanda McCarthy preformed after Bosse at 6 p.m. In a recent phone interview, owner Chuck Kalantzis talked about the challenges of Covid-19 for businesses like his, and the return of entertainment to his Elm Street restaurant and bar.

What were you doing at Penuche’s Music Hall before the pandemic hit?
We had live music consistently here seven days of the week, either with live bands or some type of local artists [playing acoustic], every day something different in our establishment.

When it happened, what kind of adjustments did you make?
At that time nobody knew what was going on, and it was very difficult to understand which way to go. The first few days I fed families who couldn’t afford anything and delivered food to older people. But with our establishment [being part of the] music industry, I would really put my employees in jeopardy along with the customers if we did takeout, so I stayed away from that. … We did a lot of community things to help out from that end. … I have it on my Facebook every day that if there’s anybody in need, they call me and I make sure they get food in some form.

How do you envision reopening with social distancing rules working?
This is uncharted territory. … Nobody knows if people are gonna be scared to go out. I don’t think so. … I think people that are sick will stay in the house. If you’re not, we need to get out to build our immune systems a little bit more, you know? I’m gonna do everything in my power to continue, keep this industry going in some form. … What I did was set my seating to the left and right of Lowell Street. I’ve also applied with the city to do Sundays as I’ve been doing for the last four years [closing off the street and putting tables there]..

You must be glad you applied to do that before.
I’m the one who brought it to Hanover Street [Penuche’s original location] — outside seating with music I developed way, way back. … They’re not allowing live entertainment [indoors] for a little while, so I have to [have] a little imagination with what I do to develop something comfortable. Music really helps your day. … So I’m putting [acoustic music] out here every day unless it’s raining. … My first night [I had] Amanda McCarthy. When she was a younger girl, I was over at Penuche’s on Hanover Street. She came to my door one day and said, I’m young and I’m just starting to learn how to play music and can you give me a chance? … I kept her going weekly and we’ve had a great relationship all the way through and I give her as much as I can. Look at what she’s developed into — she won best New England songwriter.

Yes, she’s going places.
She wrote on her Facebook page thanking me for giving her a chance and it made me feel good that I could help somebody. That’s the story. … I’m gonna try to continue to have live music daily. Saturdays and Sundays from 1 o’clock on and weekdays from 6 o’clock on at night. During this time, the musicians, great local artists that I’ve had, were sitting in their house not doing something. I called Jonny Friday up, I said listen, I’m gonna help you guys out. Why don’t you come down and use the stage, we’ll put it on Facebook, and that’s what I did during the closure. I tried to make them some money, and I donated money to them while they were performing. Trying to keep it going.

Tipping will probably be Venmo and PayPal for live musicians?
I told Amanda she could do whatever she wants. My concern is to keep the local scene going. … I’m trying to involve everybody. I put a Facebook post on for all the local musicians that want to play. I’m getting a lot of local talent, and outside talent, who say they really want to play.