“SELAH AND THE SPADES” Girl Power

 

 

Review by John Delia

Now available for home viewing is a power struggle film Selah and the Spades. It’s a film about a boarding school that’s run by five factions each independent to the others yet have a say on a board run by the strongest one. Each of the factions consider themselves leaders in their own area of expertise, but the one faction that leads them all has the power. The film reminded me of the Mean Girls vs Animal House, but not as over the top as this film takes it.

There’s certainly some very good acting throughout and the direction by Tavarisha Poe is very diligent getting her point across to the target market of older teens to mid-twenties. However, the rub comes with “the point” as the film never really makes a solid one, unless it’s confirming that today’s campuses are run by the type of factions shown in the film. That said, if you are not part of the target market mentioned above, you can let you jaw drop.

It’s Selah’s (Lovie Simone) senior year at Haldwell a boarding school for live-ins and day students. She heads up the five factions and her group The Spades, the drug and booze wheeling group, supplies nearly every drug from uppers to downers and in between. However, being that she will be moving on to college, she wants to make sure her legacy remains intact after she leaves. So Selah feels she has to be very choosy on whom to pass her power.

The Bobbies headed up by Bobby (Ana Mulvoy-Ten) are the party bloc that runs all the illegal parties that are held in the dorm basement way after lights out. They make sure that the school administration doesn’t know about the wild get together and also supplies the students with food and music. The Skins lead by Amber (Francesca Noel) run the gambling and their games of chance have big pay offs on all the local sports including football. Then there’s the Sea headed by Tarit (Henry Hunter Hall) that’s made up of all the teacher’s pets. Since they have access to all the exams, no one fails. Finally the Prefix run by Thomas Richard Thomas (Evan Roe) has the job of keeping the admiration at bay and unaware of what’s going on between all the factions.

But, there’s a new girl on campus, Palo-ma (Celeste O’Connor), a sophomore that just transferred into Haldwell and she’s a looker and a very good photographer. Selah’s got her eye on her and has a special need for Palo-ma’s services to enhance her image and legacy. Bonding quickly, Selah’s confident that this senior year will be her best ever. Or so she thinks.

Director and writer Tayarisha Poe brings all her characters together at the beginning and sets up the storyline so her audience can get the feel and course of the story. If it were real life one would think it’s all make believe, but as the screenplay unfolds it becomes more of a scary possibility that the whole thing exists somewhere in the USA today. Not that one would suspect, but after all it is the 21st Century were it seems anything goes.

What carries the film is the crew of actors that are very good in their roles. Outperforming all however, is Lovie Simone who has the attitude and attributes of the tough Selah the tyrannical leader of the campus five. Never breaking character, she goes from powerful to frightful and then…well you’ll find out in the final chapter. She makes the film work commanding most every move that’s made on campus and shines with a finale that makes the film worth watching.

Selah and the Spades has been rated R by the MPAA for teen drug content, and language. It also contains some violence and a scene of underage drinking. It’s available for home viewing on Amazon Prime Video.

FINAL ANALYSIS: The film has very good production value but is filled with mixed capricious messages. (3 out of 5 stars)

Additional Film Information:
Cast: Lovie Simone, Jharrel Jerome, Celeste O’Connor, Ana Mulvoy-Ten, Jesse Williams, Francesca Noel, Henry Hunter Hall, Evan Roe
Directed and written by: Tayarisha Poe
Genre: Drama
MPAA Rating:  R for teen drug content, and language
Running Time: 1 hr. 37 min.
Opening Date: April 17, 2020
Distributed by: Amazon Studios
Released in: Amazon’s prime video