Movies. Bobby asks Paloma if she knows about Teela, who used to be a Boby until she was poached by the spades. or orchestrating a damaging scandal. closer this comes to being a reality, however, the more resistant Selah is of ceding there are two Selahs, and the power-hungry one has displaced the caring and choose to highlight it interrupts the narrative flow. are registered trademarks / copyright their respective rights holders. Jerome), have built an empire. Selah and Maxie have a student beat up for shirking his debt, but since the number one rule at Haldwell is don’t snitch, he tells the administration he fell down the stairs, arousing Banton’s growing suspicions about the recent “falls down the stairs”. high school and gazes upon the unknown future like staring into a void. Poe is currently working on a TV series based within Haldwell and, actually, the time for the world to breathe and deepen a little more could allow this well of ideas to burst forth as a far more satisfying and complete puzzle. All rights reserved. While there is simple pleasure in watching a movie that is so precisely produced, “Selah and the Spades” aims to do more than look good. On the other side of the coin, though, this weirdness gives the film a detached quality that makes it really difficult to love. Seventeen-year-old Selah Summers (Lovie Simone) runs the most dominant group, the Spades, with unshakable poise, as they cater to the most classic of vices and supply students with coveted, illegal alcohol and pills. genre. Selah and the Spades is darker and edgier than one might exclusive private school and examine the darker side of the culture that exists Read our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy / Cookie Disclaimer. It is revealed she had also done this to a previous successor of hers which led to that girl's expulsion. Follow him on Twitter via @TomJBeasley for movie opinions, wrestling stuff and puns. We come to learn that Selah is not a nice person. Bobby tells Paloma she believes Selah set her up to take the fall to get the administration off them, since Selah always believes everything is for the greater good. They show Paloma where they keep the drugs and the ledger they keep and begin teaching her the business of the spades. Drama. Movie titles, images, etc. Her right hand is Maxxie (Jharrel Jerome). Later, Selah goes and retrieves drugs from her stash. Selah gets a call from her extremely tough and critical mother Maybelle (Gina Torres), who demands she come home, where she confronts Selah about not responding to college acceptance from the school she wants her to attend. She becomes especially concerned when she learns that Paloma’s the audience inevitably takes the viewer out of the moment. She then cuts up a college sweater her mom has gotten for her. Selah and The Spades https://yandlex.haprush.com/8759834?9gr Note: Chaz Ebert is an Executive Producer on this film. When you purchase a ticket for an independently reviewed film through our site, we earn an affiliate commission. Selah Summers (Lovie Simone) is the leader of the spades, one of five factions at Haldwell Boarding School. New Headmaster Banton (Jesse Williams) meets with new scholarship student Paloma Davis (Celeste O’Connor) to see how she’s adjusting, and she tells him she’s taking photos for the yearbook. At a boarding school where students are divided into factions, the leader of the drug-dealing Spades grooms her successor. They find Paloma, and Maxxie makes Selah tell Paloma the truth. She refuses to let Selah pay her, and Selah takes a liking to her and invites her to come to her dorm after school to see something exciting. Banton finds a flash with a spade on it. Selah is struggling to find someone to hand over control of her faction to as she prepares to graduate. Directed by Tayarisha Poe. coming-of-age tale. When Paloma asks innocuous questions about prom, Selah snaps at her and tells her she can’t deal with her. But their time is at an end and Selah has no Lovie Simone is a force of nature as Selah – a young woman who takes her role in the school hierarchy very seriously indeed, talking about “legacy” and “war” like it’s a nation state at stake and not just a bit of schoolgirl street cred. Banton has grown wise to the work of the factions – drugs, parties, cheating – and in retaliation, cancels prom. Denis and Dune: Reckless financial decision, or potential film for the ages? The normally reserved Selah hits it off with her *SPOILER REQUEST* Realizing that Selah was once again threatened by a successor and has drugged them, Maxxie yells at her that she can’t keep doing this. Selah and The Spades movie reviews & Metacritic score: In the closed world of Haldwell, an elite Pennsylvania boarding school, the student body is run by five factions. Paloma hits Selah and runs off into the night, and falls over a railing, but Maxxie and Selah are able to pull her back up to safety. It’s closer to horror than the usual lightweight fare one finds in the Arriving on the streamer a year after it first premiered at Sundance in 2019, Poe’s wildly ambitious directorial debut is a very unique, original take on the high school movie. TV Shows. Prom arrives, and Selah slips some of the drugs into a drink and gives it to Paloma, who quickly begins to feel strange. royalty. The film unfolds at Haldwell – an austere-looking boarding school set in Pennsylvania woodland and seemingly staffed by only a handful of mostly absent teachers. Eventually, Selah becomes threatened and jealous of Paloma and drugs her at the prom. The result is a discomfort on the part of the audience that never pays off with the huge narrative event that the final act seems primed to yield. Williams and Gina Torres round out the cast. The factions meet, furious, and Bobby charges Telah with the blame. Filed Under: Movies, Reviews, Tom Beasley Tagged With: Ana Mulvoy Ten, Celeste O'Connor, Cody Sloan, Evan Roe, Jesse Williams, Jharrel Jerome, Lovie Simone, Rae Bell, Selah and the Spades, Tayarisha Poe. The spades are in charge of all the drug trade at the school. The filmmaker’s interesting perspective – Poe herself went to a boarding school – and exciting young cast push the material to the verge of greatness, but it often feels like ideas are competing for attention and none of them are forced through to their logical conclusion. Fourth-wall Selah sees the photos and is annoyed that Paloma was with Bobby. Selah eventually apologizes to Paloma. It’s not a So she acts to Later, Selah helps Paloma with her bruised and bloodied hands after Paloma gave in and beat up the rat.