What a snoozer. I practically nodded off in this film, and if I had, I really wouldn’t have missed much.
At Haldwell, a high falutin’ preperatory academy, there are 5 factions that rule the school. Selah Summers (Lovie Simone) is a senior, captain of the Spirit Squad, and a mafiosa-in-the-making as head of the Spades, the school’s drug cartel. Selah’s primary competition for top banana is Bobby (Ana Mulvoy Ten), head of the theatre geeks. Selah is an over-achieving perfectionist, and her primary henchman, Maxxie, seems to be dropping the ball because he’s more interested in his new girlfriend than school politics. So Selah finds and trains a new protégée in yearbook photographer, Paloma (Celeste O’Connor). But when Paloma starts to see herself as the future leader of the Spades, Selah sees the need to bring her down a couple of notches, despite the fact that she graduates in a couple of weeks.
The biggest problem with this film is that it’s not really clear why the factions are fighting. Not money. Not territory. They are just acting superior to one another, and treating non-members of the factions as minions. In the year prior to which this story takes place, a character named Tilah had seceded from the Bobby faction to the Spades, and so someone who shall remain nameless planted drugs on her and saw she was expelled when she got too big for her britches. But that was last year, not this year, and it didn't really serve as a major plot point although the film kind of built it up to be. It was just more anecdotal evidence establishing a pattern of behavior. There’s just not enough of a premise, plot, or action in this film. It’s a lot more style than substance.
“Selah and the Spades”
Rose Wagner Performing Arts Center
February 1, 2019
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