Amazon’s Selah and The Spades Trailer: Power Needs a Protégée

April 3, 2020

Amazon Prime Video has released the official trailer for Tayarisha Poe’s forthcoming feature directorial debut Selah and The Spades, featuring the titular head cheerleader as she trains new sophomore student Paloma to become her protégée. Starring Lovie Simone and Jharrel Jerome, the film will be available for streaming on April 17. Check out the video in the player below along with the new poster!

In the closed world of an elite Pennsylvania boarding school, Haldwell, the student body is run by five factions. Seventeen-year-old Selah Summers runs the most dominant group, the Spades, with unshakable poise, as they cater to the most classic of vices and supply students with coveted, illegal alcohol and pills. Tensions between the factions escalate, and when Selah’s best friend/right hand Maxxie becomes distracted by a new love, Selah takes on a protégée, enamored sophomore Paloma, to whom she imparts her wisdom on ruling the school. But with graduation looming and Paloma proving an impressively quick study, Selah’s fears turn sin-ister as she grapples with losing the control by which she defines herself.

In her feature debut, writer/director Tayarisha Poe immerses us in a heightened depiction of teenage politics. This searing character study encapsulates just how intoxicating power can be for a teenage girl who acutely feels the threat of being denied it. Exciting newcomer Lovie Simone’s performance beautifully embodies both Selah’s publicly impeccable com-mand and the internal fears and uncertainty that drive it.

The movie stars Lovie Simone (Greenleaf, The Craft) as Selah Summers, Celeste O’Connor as Paloma, and Emmy Award-winning actor Jharrel Jerome (Moonlight, When They See Us) as Maxxie. It will also feature Jesse Williams (Grey’s Anatomy, Cabin in the Woods) and Gina Torres (Suits).

Selah and The Spades is produced by Lauren McBride, Drew Houpt, and Lucas Joaquin. The film had its world premiere at the 2019 Sundance Film Festival.