• Privacy policy
  • T&C’s
  • FAQ
  • Meet the Team
  • About The London Economic
  • Advertise
TLE ONLINE SHOP!
NEWSLETTER
SUPPORT THE LONDON ECONOMIC
  • TLE
  • News
  • Politics
  • Opinion
  • Business
  • Sport
  • Entertainment
  • Film
  • Food
  • Lifestyle
  • Property
  • Travel
  • Tech/Auto
No Result
View All Result
The London Economic
  • TLE
  • News
  • Politics
  • Opinion
  • Business
  • Sport
  • Entertainment
  • Film
  • Food
  • Lifestyle
  • Property
  • Travel
  • Tech/Auto
No Result
View All Result
The London Economic
No Result
View All Result
Home Film

Film review: Selah and The Spades

★★★☆☆

Linda Marric by Linda Marric
April 17, 2020
in Film, Film Reviews

★★★☆☆

This poetic interpretation of the horrors of high school courtesy of writer/director Tayarisha Poe offers an interesting departure from the current onslaught of markedly pedestrian coming of age dramas churned out by the likes of Netflix. With hints of Heathers, Rushmore or to a lesser extent Mean Girls, Selah and The Spades presents an ambitious, if a little disjointed story about what happens behind the closely guarded doors of a prestigious private school. 

Seventeen year old Selah (Lovie Simone) is a senior at an exclusive private Pennsylvania boarding school. Not content with being one of the best students in her year, Selah also leads a faction of students called the Spades who sell illicit class A drugs to other students.

When new girl Paloma (Celeste O’Connor) transfers into the school and photographs her during Spirit Squad practice, Selah immediately sees potential in the newcomer as a potential replacement for when she finally graduates. Together with her right hand man Maxxie (Moonlight’s Jharrel Jerome), Selah prepares the field for Paloma to take over, but things don’t go exactly the way she had planned.

This is a handsomely acted and gorgeously composed teen drama which will go on to cement its director as a great new talent. Far from knocking you over the head with overly laboured and hackneyed pseudo-intellectual tropes, Selah and Spades has at its heart a decidedly spiky, punk rock attitude. And while the ideas are a little hit and miss, what is important here is that Poe has done it all on her own terms, which in itself is rather admirable. 

Despite a certain degree of contrivance and a highly implausible plot, Selah and the Spades still manages to hold its own and that is thanks to its beautifully diverse cast. And while its overly stylised vision of debauchery and ruthless machinations can sometimes feel a little implausible, this doesn’t take away from the bigger picture presented to us. Perhaps not perfect in every way, but definitely impressive for a directorial debut. 

Related: Film review: The Lawyer

RelatedPosts

Glasgow Film Festival: What we’ve seen so far

Film Review: PVT Chat

Film Review: Saint Maud

Silver Screen Show: Soul

Support fearless, free, investigative journalism Support fearless, free, investigative journalism Support fearless, free, investigative journalism

Subscribe to our Newsletter

View our  Privacy Policy and Terms & Conditions

Trending fromTLE

  • All
  • trending

What If We Got Rid Of Prisons?

Stress, fear and homelessness: The threat looming over families confronted with eviction

File photo dated 07/11/03 of a prison cell.

The Other Prison Pandemic

Latest from TLE

Furlough: Sunak’s wealthy wife claimed up to £100,000 of taxpayer’s money

Sainsbury’s hand out bonus and pay rise to staff for pandemic work

Best reactions as usual mouthpieces are foaming over a genderless Potato Head

Prince Harry: ‘We all know what the British press can be like. And it was destroying my mental health’

About Us

TheLondonEconomic.com – Open, accessible and accountable news, sport, culture and lifestyle.

Read more

Address

The London Economic Newspaper Limited t/a TLE
Company number 09221879
International House,
24 Holborn Viaduct,
London EC1A 2BN,
United Kingdom

Contact

Editorial enquiries, please contact: jack@thelondoneconomic.com

Commercial enquiries, please contact: advertise@thelondoneconomic.com

SUPPORT

We do not charge or put articles behind a paywall. If you can, please show your appreciation for our free content by donating whatever you think is fair to help keep TLE growing and support real, independent, investigative journalism.

DONATE & SUPPORT

© 2019 thelondoneconomic.com - TLE, International House, 24 Holborn Viaduct, London EC1A 2BN. All Rights Reserved.




No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • News
  • Politics
  • Opinion
  • Business
  • Sport
  • Entertainment
  • Film
  • Lifestyle
  • Food
  • Property
  • Travel
  • Tech & Auto
  • About The London Economic
  • Meet the Team
  • Privacy policy

© 2019 thelondoneconomic.com - TLE, International House, 24 Holborn Viaduct, London EC1A 2BN. All Rights Reserved.