Most undeservingly overhyped movie of all time??

I like Black Panther, but I didn't like this movie.

It's easily one of the freshest, sharpest and most enjoyable films of this year.

This is a dark and sometimes deeply uncomfortable drama

In 1999, 8 contestants of the 72nd Scripps National Spelling Bee (THE spelling bee to win in the US of A) were documented by film maker Jeffrey Blitz for his Oscar nominated 2002 feature documentary 'Spellbound'. Coming from a broad range of cultural backgrounds, these eight youths traveled across the county to recite letters. Many of them were social pariahs, whose fascination with words put them at odds with their peers; and to get to Scripps, they needed to pass a plethora of regional spelling bees, which required countless restless nights reading dictionaries and memorising stems and affixes from as many languages as possible.It cost them time. It cost them friends. One former Scripps winner even said it cost him love (albeit jokingly). So why did these kids do it? The film doesn't try to explicitly answer that question, because ultimately it is an unknowable. However, when I watched the movie, I saw the children could be divided into two groups:1) Three of the children were first-generation Americans (two from India, one from Mexico), one was an African-American girl from a low-income background, and one was a socially-awkward Caucasian teenager. All of them had something to prove with their contention in the Bee, whether it was to make their parents proud or to boost their own self-worth.2) The other three children, among them two girls from well-off families and a precocious and highly talkative boy, were motivated far more by a sense of academic curiosity, and showed a greater degree of indifference to the idea of 'winning' the Bee.As a potential microcosm of American society, I saw how mastering spelling and words was for some a pursuit with high stakes, tied with the approval of family and one's self. And it was one that had a cost, as friends were driven away by the ambitions of these children.Of the two groups, no one group demonstrated any greater skill with spelling. The first group did indeed contain the winner, but it also contained the first of the 8 children to be knocked out of the Bee. The second group, meanwhile, was more consistently resilient, with one member of it coming in third place overall. What did I glean from this? That ultimately, knowledge of words can be a great way to prove your worth to others and yourself, but it is the love of words that is the source of the most emotionally rewarding of relationships one can have with language. Or in other words, don't be clinical about the language when passion is open to you.Bad VHS style film stock aside, this is a fascinating documentary, and one I highly recommend. All the children are given a fair amount of coverage, and best of all there is a strong narrative that structures the film.

I think the world of Professional spelling bees could be interesting. I know I've caught myself watching it on TV and found it very interesting. So I thought that Spellbound could have really been an interesting look at the inner workings and I was completely wrong. In fact I think the film maker for this "documentary" meant nothing more than to poke fun and make a film about the stereotypical "nerds" and their hobby of spelling. I mean no disrespect to the children in this film but the ones that are focused on are made to look like the kids that get beat up on the school yard and I am positive they could have either found a balance of personalities partaking in this or at the very least made the children they did focus on seem a little more interesting and perhaps shown to enjoy other things in life than just spelling. Yes I know the film was about spelling bees but were these children actually raised from birth to become spelling champions because that was the impression the film left me with. I was blown away to discover that this film was actually nominated for an Oscar let alone other awards.I am not going to review the performances by any of the people in this film because they weren't actors. This was a documentary, not a drama or comedy or anything else. I will however discuss the film maker and director Jeffrey Blitz. Two things should be noted...first of all this was his first film as a director. Secondly Mr. Blitz went on to direct the very popular dry humor comedy The Office. Coincidence? It would lead me to believe once again that Jeffrey Blitz was not taking this very seriously which is fine if it was presented as some sort of mockumentary comedy which it was not. I also feel bad for the kids portrayed because this was serious for them likely but I simply wanted to laugh through most of the film.The Oscar Nomination is just ludicrous because no matter how you look at Spellbound it just wasn't good. Even if you take the participants for what they were...they were far from interesting. It was like watching people come out of a comic book convention (no offense, I love Comic Books too.) The kids were awkward, socially outcast and just made to look like the most stereotypical geeks you could possibly think of. Spellbound is far from interesting and it certainly won't make you think highly of spelling bees or want to participate or visit one...ever. Steer clear of this stinker, it's barely entertaining. 5/10

From this documentary, people can draw up many conclusions on the subject. One, for instance, is that it seems like a lot of the children that participate in these spelling bees and get a high placement, are foreign or from foreign descent. Another is that almost all these kids don't have a life...But a conclusion that we can also come up with, is that not all documentaries with big names and big reputations can hold up to your expectations. I have been hearing about Spellbound for a long time. So, when I finally picked up a copy, I was expecting something quite good. I was, unfortunately, let down.Jeffrey Blitz is, no doubt, the one to blame. He simply picked the wrong, and least interesting side of the documentary. While he spends the most part of the first hour telling the lives of eight of the people who qualified for the National tournament, this proves to be a rather dull way, as all along, as we see one of the boys telling us that he has no friends because he can't communicate as lowly as other people do, we just want to see the actually spelling tournament take place.In fact, it's hard to understand why he has such a clear division between the description of the contestants and the tournament itself. This simply doesn't work. It would have made much more pace, dramatically and as far as pacing is concerned, if Blitz had decided to include these description as the spellathon took place. It would in fact have been more interesting had we gotten a more detailed description of the tournament itself, and what makes it so important to some people, so important in fact, that it would be broad-casted live on television. It would have been more rewarding to see a documentary on the national spelling tournament done in the way the Woodstock documentary had been done; in an exciting and rewarding way.All the actual entertainment we get comes from the kid, Harry Altman (the one in who makes the face in the cover). He is quite the loose cannon, pointing at the boom microphone and asking if it's edible, or as he takes ages trying to spell the word 'banns' (which he ultimately gets wrong).Little entertainment, slow pacing and not much education. So, if you want to watch it anyways because if the reputation carries, go right ahead, but be warned, it's not that good. It's rather, a missed opportunity.

A movie about a spelling competition? Who would have thought! This documentary covers the U.S national spelling bee in 1999 and the dreams and fates of 8 starry-eyed hopefuls wishing for spelling-glory. There is a wide range of kids ranging from what seems about 10 years to 16 years and covers a wide range of ethnic groups from Anglo-Saxon American to Indian and Mexican.Apart from the exciting battle between these formidable spellers, what Spellbound shows us is the wide range of ethnic groups prevalent in the U.S; no matter where you come from they all strive towards the American dream – in this case, to win a spelling bee! Furthermore each of the kids - and as strongly demonstrated by their parents - show that they have different means to achieve the common dream.Cultural and social-economic differences show us that the dream as a symbol can vary greatly from family to family. It is amazingly interesting to see how the family in Texas gambles their whole life on seeing Ashley (I think?) makes it to the top while April's(?) family in Connecticut see it as just another hobby and are in genuine awe of her talents. Neil's family see it as a way of compensating for their poor upbringing and ensuring he has a high quality of life. The discrepancy in social wealth and education is striking. April's family is able to afford her horse-riding, a good school and tuition, while the kids in The South and poorer areas of the Mid-West have no other activities. Some of them only work at their spelling and it in fact one of them comments that it so-to-speak, keeps them off the streets. For one child, it is a blessing to a new and successful life; for another, proof to their parents that they are worthy; and for someone else, a merely just another gold star to add to their collectionAll the kids are a joy to watch, bright-eyed and eager, capturing the pleasure and anticipation in finding their special talent and something in life worthy striving for. Most interestingly are the dynamics between the parents and children and seeing how one child see the competition as a hobby and the parent as a golden ticket. Neil's parents seems a bit dogmatic and over-orthodox to the point of almost brainwashing the poor kid! It is amazing to see where they cultivate their sharp minds and passion for words when the parents, while are loving in their child's interest, have almost no interest in a world of complicated words and grammar.I find it a truth too common nowadays - in my neighbourhood anyway - where many affluent kids (especially Asians) are pressured so much by the parents to achieve something, to fulfill goals that the parents sorely wanted to achieve. So much so that they will go to tremendous lengths of tuition, coaching, study forsaking social play and hobbies just to achieve the elusive gold standard. This film highlights this and touches on these disparities lightly.The spelling bee itself forms the last good half of the film and remains interspersed with comments from the family and kids about their anxiety, jubilations and dreams and the field narrows. The suspense is nail-bitingly tense. The words are *difficult*, not even an above-average speller like myself could attempt them, let alone pronounce them. I didn't know what almost all of them meant and haven't even heard of them!But what I found distracting was the poor quality film they had to use. There wasn't any real point to using a cheaper film and I found it quite hard to see what was going on sometimes. In addition, the sound quality was very poor, and I had to turn up the sound quite a lot, especially during the competition which formed most of the film's thrilling excitement. Unfortunately, I would have like to hear what they were spelling half the time! I also the structuring was a little off and a little difficult to get adjusted. I really wished that they had filmed it more crisply and clearly because I found myself very distracted me several times especially at crucial points in the film.However, it still remains a fairly pleasant film helped along by the charisma and diversity of the kids. I remember myself as a prolific reader when I was young and used to love spelling, but these kids obviously had a lot more fun than I ever had, and their infectious joy shines vivaciously throughout. This was an enjoyable, cute little film.