Selah and The Spades
Amazon Studios | Release Date (Streaming): April 17, 2020 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
69
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 29 Critic Reviews
Positive:
21
Mixed:
7
Negative:
1
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
90
Film ThreatBradley GibsonApr 16, 2020
The level of craft in Poe’s feature debut exceeds that of directors with more experience and portends a long career with more wonderful art to come. In Selah and the Spades, she has created a new classic tale of power, love, hate, loyalty, and betrayal featuring a stunningly talented cast. Read full review
88
Chicago Sun-TimesRichard RoeperApr 16, 2020
The screenplay packs a punch and a sharp bite, the visuals are dazzling, the camerawork captures the fever-dream madness of the story — and the performances from the young cast (and a few solid veterans) are spot-on. Read full review
83
IndieWireKate ErblandApr 22, 2020
Poe has built a rich world that’s equal parts “Rushmore,” “Heathers,” and “The Godfather,” with all the unpredictability that teenage behavior can possibly engender. Read full review
80
The Hollywood ReporterBeandrea JulyApr 16, 2020
Quietly confident in its unconventional yet clear point of view, Selah and the Spades signals a bright future for a promising young filmmaker. Read full review
80
VarietyAmy NicholsonApr 16, 2020
Writer-director Tayarisha Poe’s cold and stylish debut, commands attention. More specifically, Simone’s Selah seizes it. Read full review
80
Los Angeles TimesJen YamatoApr 16, 2020
As a character study, Selah and the Spades is more than requiem for a mean girl. Think the stylistic snappiness of “Brick” meets the fastidious world-building of “Rushmore” with a fourth-wall-bending feminist perspective and two young black female leads, and you’ve got “Selah.” Read full review
80
The New York TimesTeo BugbeeApr 16, 2020
Selah and the Spades shimmers with youthful promise, both in front of the camera and behind it. Read full review
79
TheWrapSteve PondApr 14, 2020
At times the storytelling may make the story look and feel more interesting than it is, particularly in an ending that feels as if it rushes to find a bit of forced redemption. But Poe is an assured first-time director who has created a high-school movie that feels distinct from all the high-school movies that preceded it. Read full review
75
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Barry HertzApr 21, 2020
But while first-timer mistakes abound – everyone except the three leads deliver performances so stiff I wondered if they were deliberate – Selah and the Spades is more than just a slick calling card. It’s impassioned, informed and sometimes furious work that could find Poe being name-checked herself not too long from now. Read full review
75
ReelViewsJames BerardinelliApr 20, 2020
It’s closer to horror than the usual lightweight fare one finds in the genre. Read full review
75
RogerEbert.comMonica CastilloApr 17, 2020
From the moment Selah is shown on her wicker chair throne off-campus, Selah and the Spades is impressively filled with style. Through the lens of cinematographer Jomo Fray, the film is vibrantly colorful yet moody, dripping with teen angst. Read full review
75
The Film StageJared MobarakApr 17, 2020
The film doesn’t nail every beat . . . but what it gets right is unassailable. Read full review
75
Slant MagazineSteven ScaifeApr 16, 2020
Through its exploration of Selah’s complexities, as well as the bravado and posturing that comes with being a credible drug dealer, Selah and the Spades locates a larger truth about the presentation of self and maintaining one’s image. Read full review
75
Chicago TribuneKatie WalshApr 15, 2020
It's arresting to behold, but it almost seems to run out of steam at a certain point. But for any of its story flaws, Selah and the Spades is so tonally and aesthetically indelible, it announces the arrival of an exciting new cinematic voice in Poe, and cements Lovie Simone as a bona fide movie star. Read full review
75
Washington PostAnn HornadayApr 14, 2020
With its clean staging and coolly mannered style, Selah and the Spades reaches back to Wes Anderson, Whit Stillman and even Stanley Kubrick; this is a film in which nearly every image looks worked over and carefully polished, with no detail left unconsidered. Read full review
70
Paste MagazineNatalia KeoganMay 7, 2020
Poe’s steady hand keeps the balance between realistic teen drama and the crime genre, allowing its examination of melodrama surrounding betrayal, rule-breaking and power-grabs to breathe true. Read full review
70
Rolling StoneDavid FearApr 20, 2020
You can tell there’s a voice and vision behind Selah and the Spades, one that’s likely to come into its own after some seasoning. It might seem like faint praise to throw a “watch this space” sign on top of what is indeed a more-than-impressive first movie. Read full review
70
Arizona RepublicBill GoodykoontzApr 16, 2020
Just being new and different aren’t enough reasons to stream something, not even when we’re shut in at home. Selah and the Spades is both of those things, but it’s a genuinely compelling film as well. Read full review
67
The A.V. ClubKatie RifeApr 16, 2020
If you took "Harry Potter," put it in a paper bag with "The Wire," and shook it vigorously, you’d get the basic idea behind Selah And The Spades — a film that, to its credit, is only partially defined by those two elements. Read full review
63
LarsenOnFilmJosh LarsenMay 1, 2020
Unlike Daze and those other predecessors, Selah and the Spades never convincingly establishes its own stylized universe, resting somewhat uncomfortably between the real world and a fully realized, believably hermetic place. Read full review
63
Boston GlobeTy BurrApr 16, 2020
That uncertainty is the strength of writer-director Tayarisha Poe’s debut feature and ultimately its undoing. There’s dramatic ambiguity and there’s a muddle, and you may spend the movie’s 97 minutes trying to untwine one from the other. Read full review
60
The Observer (UK)Mark KermodeApr 20, 2020
It’s tempting to view Selah and the Spades as a triumph of style over substance, richer in visual promise than thematic rewards. Yet there’s also something thrilling about Poe’s refusal to smooth the odd and potentially alienating edges off this very personal (and ultimately empowering) drama, suggesting a strength of creative purpose that will doubtless pay great dividends. Read full review
60
New York Magazine (Vulture)Alison WillmoreApr 20, 2020
Selah and the Spades ends just as it feels like it’s really picking up momentum, which is the major frustration of the film and also, likely, part of the reason it was picked up by Amazon both as a release and the basis for a possible series adaptation. Read full review
60
EmpireBeth WebbApr 17, 2020
Selah And The Spades showcases Simone’s star power and suggests a promising future for Poe, but ultimately fails to keep up the pace needed to make it the slick, cutting teen drama that it clearly wants to be. Read full review
60
The GuardianPeter BradshawApr 16, 2020
For all its fantastical vein, this movie has an interesting grasp of what high school is really like – not a Hollywood narrative, neither funny nor tragic, and certainly nothing like that most unreal of genres, the coming-of-age drama. Rather it’s messy, downbeat and inconclusive, without teachable moments – like everything else in real life. Read full review
60
Wall Street JournalJoe MorgensternApr 16, 2020
The film is funny and astute on the boundless self-seriousness of adolescence, and a formidable start for Ms. Poe’s career. Here’s looking to her for the next one. Read full review
58
The PlaylistAsher LubertoApr 9, 2020
Emphasizing Selah’s discovery that cliques are kinda dumb and that her actions have consequences, Selah and the Spades loses momentum, despite a witty framing device that places characters as tiny figures in the school’s vast, empty rooms. Read full review
50
San Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalleApr 15, 2020
An interesting movie that doesn’t completely satisfy, but its central character lingers in the mind. Read full review
38
ObserverOliver JonesApr 20, 2020
The often-stilted dialogue of the teenage protagonists doesn’t fare much better. As a result, many of the performances from the seemingly talented cast come off as stiff and stagey. Read full review
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