The REAL revenge of the nerds!
This is one of the best movies I've seen in the last two years. It broadcasts to all the Bruckenheimers out there that you don't need special effects, fancy sets and tons of explosions to make a good film. Just take characters we can love or hate, and tell their story! Duh! It's so simple, it's too simple, and people miss it.Nuts to them. This movie is done so (yes) simply, yet it's done so well. It looks like it was shot with a crew of three, from the back of the director's van. Many of the shots look like they were taken with a disposable camera. Snapshots really. The people aren't prettied up, the houses aren't tidyed up, neither are the neighbourhoods. Honest.
And yet in that honesty the director sees and hears beautiful truths. The father confessing he wasn't a real success story. The dog licking the mother's leg (hilarious!). The congratulations signs that were spelled wrong. The girl (was it Emily?) who got all the way to the later rounds of the nationals, yet still doubted herself! The boy (sorry, forgot your name too) who looked like he was going to throw up or faint, yet kept advancing. The loner kids, being alone, and not suddenly everybody's friend infront of the movie cameras. Parents being parents, some driving, some troubled, most rumpled, yet all decent and good.
Given a better ending that didn't deflate all the tension that had been built so carefully, I would have given 'Spellbound' a ten. Instead I gave it a nine. But a happy nine!
I'd love to know how those kids and their parents are doing now. Take care, all of you. And hey, well done.
score 9/10
Foxterrier 1 October 2003
Reprint: https://www.imdb.com/review/rw0895823/35631
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