'Selah and The Spades' Contextualizes A Black Woman Villain

Selah and the Spades still.

Jared Leto and Joaquin Phoenix are both starring in solo Joker films after Jack Nicholson and Heath Ledger played the popular psychotic Batman nemesis respectively. Needless to say, Hollywood seems to be passing on promoting new, original villain stories, especially villain stories that are not consecutive executions of the same, rehashed white male character. Well, Tayarisha Poe's Selah and the Spades is a refreshing take on the foundation of evil. The foundation can appear normal outside, but the psychological effects are teasingly explored through its leading lady Selah.

The Haldwell cheerleading squad own every bit of their identity from the outfits, routines, individual hairstyles. No one, especially men, can dictate these young women on how to act accordingly or who to be. Yes, a slap to respectability politics indeed.

With killer box braids and baby hairs on point, Selah Summers is a confident seventeen-year-old senior at the upscale Haldwell Boarding School in Philadelphia. Maxxie, her level-headed sidekick, stays seamlessly at her side. Selah and Maxxie lead the Spades sector of the five fractions, an underground society that penalizes betrayal of the order. The Spades are responsible for booze, powders, pills, and fun, the Seas are teacher's pets gone rogue, the Skins deal in gambling mostly school sports, the Bobbys plan illegal dorm parties, and the Prefects keep administration unaware of the ongoings. The Spades are the highest authority. In the meantime, Selah and the cheerleading team choreograph their own dance routines and decide the length and cut of their uniforms. She entails this to the new sophomore, Paloma-- a photographer capturing all the campus excitement. Selah is immediately drawn to her, taking the younger, reserved girl into the dark, privileged corners of boarding school life. Paloma sees that the Spades run a sleek drug operation including making trips to dangerous Fishtown for refills. This uncovered world seduces Paloma, her arousing fascination snapped by her attentive professional camera. She is constantly at the side of Selah and Maxxie, a third wheel fixed mostly to Selah. Slowly and surely, however, Paloma's desire for Maxxie to leave the picture becomes clear.

Now behind some girls is a mother who wants the very best for her daughter. Selah's dessert baking mom, Mrs. Summers hides a sharp malice beneath a false cheery persona-- one that Selah has certainly inherited. For example, Selah has scored a 93% (give or take an A or A-). Instead of congratulations, Mrs. Summers asks, "what happened to the other 93%?" Selah falters at this disappointed tone, formulating excuses, breaking like glass in this isolated moment in her dorm room. Here lies the torturous source of Selah's weakness. Later, in an uncomfortable home visit, Selah is coaxed into coring an apple for her mother's pies and accidentally cuts her hand. As Mrs. Summers wraps Selah's wound with a towel, the mood seems altogether chilly and intense. Selah's sudden doubt, resentment, and despair manifest, having no place to escape except internally, fueling her within. Yet Mrs. Summers has the sunniest smile on her face.

"It'll put you in your place," Mrs. Summers darkly says of Redwood College.

Mrs. Summers makes Redwood sound like a simultaneous boot camp, mental hospital, and prison. Ah, if only she could see how alive Selah is on the Haldwell campus, consumed with power lust. Everyone fears Selah's wrath-- she has some pretty violent tendencies. Although Maxie knows her crimes, others have hunches or guesses that cannot be proven (or want to be investigated). Meanwhile Paloma and Selah's intimacy has grown tremendously. Selah thrives on having the upper hand, the highest card possible, but her friendship forces Paloma outside of her good girl comfort zone. Selah also speaks frankly on relationships, admitting that she avoids the "reasons why girls cry in bathrooms," perhaps hinting asexuality. In Paloma, however, Selah sees that they are one and the same and grips tightly onto Paloma's presence, often aggressively possessive. Their eyes join softly, their faces sometimes close and charged. This is partly Selah's manipulation tactics, pulling Paloma deeper and deeper into forbidden territory, studying the breaking point.

Paloma (Celeste O'Connor), Selah (Lovie Simone), and Maxxie (Jharrel Jerome) operate as a conjoined unit for a limited time.

Unfortunately, Selah's insecurities take a larger hold. Fueled by both resounding disappointment and impervious jealousy, she does harmful things to those closest to her. Though Maxxie and Paloma pay ultimate prices, in solitary scenes, Selah reveals her capability of guilt, abandonment and fear contributors of her young madness.

Among this intriguing, original narrative and solid musical choices, certain scenes stand out like artful stills, the lights and colors lingering in the mind. The senior prank has arranged serenely colored water in glasses filling up the stairs, Selah and Paloma interact between red fringe tendrils that drift on the dimly lit school stage where they have set up Macbeth production; scenic nature is transformed into a pop up prom in the woods. The attention to detail is commendable, the environments and materials sophisticatedly woven in these environments heightening the film's integrity.

The trifecta: Paloma (Celeste O'Connor), Selah (Lovie Simone), and Maxxie (Jharrel Jerome). 

The well-ensembled cast performances are outstanding. Lovie Simone, (Greenleaf's Zora) who Poe said was originally to be Paloma, has starring charisma as Selah, a girl feigning strength, studying hard, and hating to lose control of power. Now isn't that quite Mabethian? One particular scene has Selah staring at a smiling photograph of herself. Simone is able to convincingly express Selah's need to copy in the mirror, to look hard at a photograph and attempt to manufacture an emotion that only Paloma finds. Jharrel Jerome (Moonlight's teenage Kevin) is the devoted Maxxie. He has sweet qualities, but in the end, he is an accessory to crime. During a horrific fight, Maxxie finally divulges Selah's problematic insecurities in a fit of rage. Jerome renders Maxxie with resentment and pain, most importantly conveying Maxxie's hurt inflamed by an undeniable love for Selah. Relative newcomer Celeste C. Connor is an impressionable Paloma, the following strumpet, the photographer with a perceptive artist eye. Jesse Williams excels as the gruffy bearded Haldwell Headmaster often caught up in the humorous teenage mischief and Gina Torres (Firefly and Serenity's Zoe and Suits and upcoming Pearson's Jessica-- the first Afro Latina to star in a U.S. TV series) gives a solid cameo as Mrs. Summers, a mother whose sinister knife hold suggests more than just prepping apples for pie.

Selah and the Spades writer/director Tayarisha Poe.

Selah and the Spades is a solid contemporary take that has a Cruel Intentions meets Bring It On vibe. Selah is like Cruel Intentions' Kathryn Merteuil without the sex and drug addiction, mentoring Paloma, grooming her almost in a Kathryn and Celeste proverbial fashion that explores the depth of human closeness, of young women closeness. Selah hasn't kissed anyone much less ventured further while Paloma has experimented. Both innocent girls of color, which media often portrays as experienced, wild, and wanton, are considerably drawn to each other. Selah shares Bring It On's Isis's traits, her remarkable leadership, intelligence, and fire. If only Isis were given a bigger storyline and turned a wee bit villainous....

Poe's incredible writing style exceptionally screams womanist. Her women are assured and vulnerable, they're deep and complex, angry without stigma, they have dialogue more than about men and male gaze. Selah is such a bad, bad girl, but her naughtiness is so damn irresistible, satisfying in a secret way. By the end, one understands her convictions. We want her to win somehow, to beat odds, rebel against her mother's higher than heaven's gates expectations.

Selah receives a nasty comeuppance. The final shot's residue contains the struck villain, seeming capable of redeeming herself, of finding a new ground to land. And it is the three teenagers-- Selah, Maxxie, and Paloma wrapping their arms around each other. These two people are Selah's to hold dear if she truly opened up and allowed them a real space to occupy.

Yes, clues left and right flicker towards hating Selah, resenting her at least. She is evil. She inadvertently causes perilous harm. Yet Selah is unlike typical villains. She is a vulnerable, scared, and unapologetically Black female teenager, a product of her environment, an otherwise Shakespearean tragedy. That tragedy being a vitriolic combination of boarding school elitism and meddling mothers that would likely poison pies on a bad day.