This is a documentary about America's National Spelling Bee, focusing on eight children who make the finals and it's a lot more exciting than Hithcock's film of the same name. Like all good documentaries it's a triumph of research and of hundreds of hours of filming being whittled down to under two and like all good documentaries you feel a strong element of staging must be involved. (Our knowledge of the movies, by their very nature, predisposes us to presume that one of the eight chosen children has to the winner).
While the children may be the ostensible 'stars' of the picture, (you may not find them all naturally likable but watching them getting knocked out of the competition can be nail-biting stuff), it's more often the parents you remember. Unlike the show-biz parents of the appalling stage-school kids we normally associate with these kinds of competitions, these people seem genuinely in awe of their children's talents and regardless of their backgrounds they all seem to have their feet firmly planted on the ground, and both children and parents are remarkably tantrum-free when they lose. Of course, there can only be one winner and by the time we get to the final two, the tension is considerable. That this isn't fiction and that we are dealing with real children makes it all the more exciting and all the more poignant. A likable experience.
While the children may be the ostensible 'stars' of the picture, (you may not find them all naturally likable but watching them getting knocked out of the competition can be nail-biting stuff), it's more often the parents you remember. Unlike the show-biz parents of the appalling stage-school kids we normally associate with these kinds of competitions, these people seem genuinely in awe of their children's talents and regardless of their backgrounds they all seem to have their feet firmly planted on the ground, and both children and parents are remarkably tantrum-free when they lose. Of course, there can only be one winner and by the time we get to the final two, the tension is considerable. That this isn't fiction and that we are dealing with real children makes it all the more exciting and all the more poignant. A likable experience.