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Purely Joyful Movie!

Admirable film.

I didn’t really have many expectations going into the movie (good or bad), but I actually really enjoyed it. I really liked the characters and the banter between them.

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

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.

Spellbound is a mixed bag. For one thing, it is really quite a bit longer than it needed to be, and I found myself eager for it to get to the point. The profiles of each of the kids are interesting, but they could all have been clipped by 20-30% without much loss of content.The most interesting aspect of the movie are the kids themselves: where they come from, the lives they lead, the way they reflect their parents' ambitions and struggles. In a sense, these children are a sampling of American society, and their stories illustrate much about the ways that different subgroups or subcultures operate and what they value. For example, it was very interesting to note the ambitious attitudes with which children of immigrants attacked the spelling bee. The black girl's family typified her subgroup.I'd say it's worth watching, mainly as a nutshell picture of American society and its priorities, but keep a finger on the fast-forward.

On its surface, "Spellbound" is a modest but engaging documentary about eight regional finalists on their way to Washington D.C. to join 241 others in the National Spelling Bee. Director Jeffrey Blitz keeps the structure simple, spending time with each of the eight in self-contained chapters, then moving to the built-in drama of the competition itself.But what makes "Spellbound" so much more -- and a stellar example of the power of the genre -- is that Blitz has succeeded in giving us eight intimate portraits of American families. Had he set out to probe the scope of socio-economics in this country, and the way education is understood and valued, the roles of race, national origin and region, and the variations in family and parental dynamics, Blitz would not have achieved the insights he presents.The quest for the spelling title -- or is that we each is really hoping for? -- unifies the film, but it also seems to strip away each family's defenses. Parents alternately gush and fret about their children, some push while others deflate expectation. And the children themselves, while perhaps not representative of average 12-, 13- and 14-year-olds, are disarmingly candid about their fears and dreams."Spellbound," with its apparent low-budget approach, should inspire a new generation of documentary makers.

The childlike ability to dedicate oneself so wholly, we often attribute dedication to adulthood (marriage, business, etc.) but only a child, who does not doubt the validity of an enterprise with his intellect to the same degree he will as an adult, only a child could be so dedicated to spelling. I remember as a child spending hours perfecting the most useless abilities, taking unconscious joy in the perfection itself, flipping a tennis racket, juggling, spelling, times tables, etc. I interrupt myself when I try to do this kind of thing as an adult. I remember as a child spending hours perfecting the most useless abilities, taking unconscious joy in the perfection itself, flipping a tennis racket, juggling, spelling, times tables, etc. I interrupt myself when I try to do this kind of thing as an adult.