Written and directed by Tayarisha Poe
Starring Lovie Simone, Jharrel Jerome and Celeste O'Connor
MPAA rating: R for teen drug content, and language
Running time: 1 hour and 37 minutes

by Benjamin Leonard, Best Boy

You know that feeling you get when you see a movie and it makes you excited to see what the filmmaker will do next? Selah and the Spades is the debut feature from writer/director Tayarisha Poe and it does just that. Her only other credit that you may be familiar with was still photography on 2016’s The Fits. Poe is a West Philly native that attended Swarthmore College for Film and Literature and has set her feature at a fiction boarding school (Haldwell) in the distant suburbs of the city. So, if for nothing else, you should check this out just to show your Philly pride.

But that’s not all this has to offer. While it’s Rated R, this is aimed at and, I think, perfectly suited for the 14-20 age bracket. It’s the story of Selah (Lovie Simone), a senior and head of The Spades, one of the five major cliques at Haldwell. Each of the cliques have their own specialty, but it is clear that The Spades’ specialty, recreational drug supply, is most necessary for the day to day operation of the school. There’s a lot of battling for position inside and out of these cliques and Selah seems to rule it all with a cool head.

As the story progresses, we start to see the cracks as she’s favoring a newcomer, Paloma (Celeste O’Connor), over her longtime cohort, Maxxie (Jharrel Jerome), as heir apparent when Selah’s senior year ends. We see private moments where Selah seems to have no control at all and glimpses of a homelife that seem to have caused her obsession for perfection. The film then turns to waiting for it to unravel and see who comes out on top.

The young cast is excellent even if they are a little light on film credits. Simone and Jerome have both had good runs in television with Greenleaf for Simone and Mr. Mercedes and When They See Us for Jerome. I felt O’Connor really stood out and (so far) her only claim to fame is that she’s slated to be in the upcoming Ghostbusters reboot. No matter, this is a cast to keep your eyes on.

The overall look and feel of the film is part hardboiled noir and part fantasy all mixed up in a teen drama. It was unsurprising to hear Poe on April Wolfe’s Switchblade Sisters stating that her major influences for Selah and the Spades were Ryan Johnson’s Brick and Wes Anderson’s films. There’s a grit mixed with quirkiness that is the overriding mood. The previously mentioned scenes with Selah’s mother are quick asides that give a small callback to Poe’s work on The Fits.

I only really had two small objections to the film. Firstly, it refers to Fishtown in Philadelphia as if it were a really rough and tumble place. It hasn’t been that way for a decade. My other issue is how it doesn’t give too much weight to the real (possible) dangers of drug use and dealing. However, I think that these both could fit with how those characters would see the world. Young adults in a secure little boarding school outside of the city COULD really think that Fishtown was “the hood”. And I haven’t ever grown up enough to forget that, as a kid, you haven’t seen how drugs can destroy your friends and their promising young lives. So maybe that’s all on me.

Like I said earlier, this is a really good movie from some promising young talents. I can’t wait to see what they are doing in the future. You can check out Selah and the Spades on Amazon now.