Four stars. Rated G, and suitable for all ages
By Derrick Bang • Originally published in The Davis Enterprise, 7.3.20
Spellbound was one of the hits of 2002’s film season: an engaging documentary that profiled some of the young competitors vying for the championship in the annual Scripps Howard National Spelling Bee.
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| Shourav spends several hours each day studying the computer database of "challenging" words likely to surface during the annual Scripps National Spelling Bee. |
Thanks to that film and other hits — such as 2005’s March of the Penguins and Mad Hot Ballroom — we’ve since enjoyed a welcome Renaissance in cinematic documentaries, which shows no sign of letting up.
Case in point: Spelling the Dream, a new Netflix original that mimics the successful Spellbound playbook, while analyzing the rather striking trend that has dominated the Scripps (no longer Howard) National Spelling Bee, during the past two decades.
Before getting to that, director Sam Rega opens his film with the staggering result of last year’s 92nd annual contest, when — after 20 exhilarating rounds — the judges acknowledged an eight-way tie for first place, after they ran out of words. Those eight kids beat the dictionary.
Simply amazing. Even before last year, this annual contest had become must-see viewing on ESPN.
The provocative detail is that an Indian-American competitor has won for the past 12 consecutive years: one of the longest streaks in sports history. The obvious question: Why? Rega and co-scripter Chris Weller decided to find out, by profiling a quartet of young Indian-American competitors, as they navigate local and regional elimination matches en route to the 2017 finale in Washington, D.C.
The answer, as we quickly discover, isn’t that complicated. These kids work for it. They’re no different than any young athlete who shoots hoops or dribbles a soccer ball for three hours every afternoon; the passion is simply cerebral, rather than physical.
Our candidates also are encouraged by loving parents and — as often seems the case — cheerfully competitive siblings who are equally talented. Rega and Weller quickly emphasize that these aren’t “tiger parents,” drilling kids at the expense of their own childhood; pursuing this dream is a truly collaborative family endeavor.
But yes, these spelling savants do have one advantage: They’re multi-lingual, having grown up in households where English sometimes is an afterthought. That helps significantly, when it comes to studying and understanding word roots.
