Selah and the Spades

lolotwins 💯🔥👑🇭🇹, kiesha ❤️‍🔥🫡

source: Selah and the Spades

The plot structure had a lot of potential. Unfortunately, it all ended up just scratching the surface, trying to plant seeds & then abandoning the rest of the process altogether. The result? Some seriously weak tea! It's not good, but it's completely horrible, so I guess it's ok if you're thirsty enough.

Movie night with Iris. Rough around the edges tale of high school hostile cliques. It has hints of Catcher in the Rye. And has to be applauded fro a black, female dominance. There is a stylised, numbness throughout. Indeed it doesn't really lead anywhere. The film has an interesting take on what high school is really like - not the Hollywood coming-of-age drama. School is dull and messy, like everything else in real life.

Promising much with a potentially gripping boarding school set drama centered around a collection of teenage factions that hold a monopoly over their upper-class education facility, Selah and the Spades is all shine and no substance as debut director Tayarisha Poe is unable to bring her story to vivid life. Sharing some DNA with early 2000's high-school indie Brick, Spades is in many ways a hip and now affair, surrounded by some of the hottest new talent in the industry with Lovie Simone and When They See Us star Jharrel Jerome leaders of an impressive young cast, but the at first intriguing story of Simone's faction leader Selah and Celeste O'Connor's newcomer and potential protege to Selah Paloma quickly gives way to a film that never feels at home in itself or crafts a central narrative that ends up being worth our time exploring. Introducing us in the first few minutes to the various groups that run drugs and plan extra curricular activities in the school grounds of Haldwell, Spades seems like it is setting up a unique and vibrant world within a world for us to journey through but like most of the film, this idea seems only half explored at best with little care or thought given on how these elements combine around an otherwise generic fish out of water/coming of age story that doesn't have the substance or vibrancy to stand out from a crowded marketplace. Not afraid to tackle some dark themes but never diving into them in a way that makes Spades feel overly insightful, Poe and her actors don't back away from taking Spades down an untypical route in some instances, with Selah a curiously detestable central figure and the grounds of Haldwell itself acting as a character in its own right but the actors best work and Spades visual prowess are only able to carry the uninviting and bland story so far. With Simone and O'Connor acquitting themselves to their respective roles and Jerome doing well with limited material to work with or screentime to allow him to shine, Spades main trio of performers come out on top in a film that never builds in a way that feels worth it, especially in regards to an utterly bland finale that will make you wonder if reels of the film were lost before the credits hit the screen. Final Say - This Amazon Prime distributed offering has potential that is never met as Selah and the Spades fails to utilize the performers or story at its disposal in a way that makes this untypical school set drama worthy of your time. 2 prom nights out of 5

I have watched my fair share of Bad movies , many I decided would probably have appealed to a much younger audience than myself So on that basis took it into consideration when I rated the movie ,however this movie was So Bad that I seriously doubt even a young audience would enjoy! It failed on so many levels the highest being that it lacked any story whatsoever am perplexed why whoever paid for it to be made was thinking or more appropriately not thinking maybe they needed a tax deduction although I think a charity donation would have been more useful!

Great potential, but thoroughly boring. the actors were terrible, story not fully fleshed out, it could have been a lot better. I've seen too many of these kinds of stories done much better.

Great cinematography with a Phenomenal cast of actors detailing the informative perils of high school anarchies and coming of age.

I forgot how hard it was to just BE in high school. This was a beautiful reminder that it only takes a second to make a bad decision. Lol heck-to make a good one too. Great movie!

Selah and The Spades is a gem, no other film like it. Bold and experimental filmmaking helped subvert this genre, upside down on itself - and I loved everything minute of it. The entire film wasn't perfect but nothing really is. Def check this movie out asap.