Spoilers Alert:
A musical comedy based on optimal ingredients, consistently screwed up: Nisha Ganatras THE HIGH NOTE impresses with its beautiful shots of California, but suffers from a poor script that makes the story downright unsympathetic. We reveal more about this in our review.
Tracee Ellis Ross is the daughter of Diana Ross. In “The High Note” she embodies the fictional soul legend Grace Davis.
The fact that in “The High Note” such things are declared a conflict, such as the offer to Grace Davis of her own show in Las Vegas (where the soul legend would much rather tour the world), is just one of them at this point Side note emphasizing the first world problem aspect that has already been addressed. The fact that such “problems” at best provoke a shake of the head, but not sympathy, is not least due to the fact that one of Diana Ross’s daughter Tracee Ellis Ross (“Black-ish”) embodied Grace Davis doesn’t buy her megastar status. It’s not like Ross doesn’t get the opportunity to show off her impressive belting voice every now and then. Also Kelvin Harrison Jr. (“Waves”) would certainly have good chances as an RnB artist if acting didn’t work out at some point.
“Until the very end, the film fails to make Maggie’s sense of music tangible. Instead, the character, who is anything but likeable, is more and more exposed as a poser.”
But for a music film, “The High Note” simply lacks catchy songs. Both the numbers played by Grace Davis and those by David all sound very similar. And if one of the two does sing a potential catchy tune, Nisha Ganatra cuts it off before it can even get stuck in the audience’s memory. The collection of late 90s and early 2000s pop songs plastering the film almost leaves a stronger impression. Although not necessarily the more positive one. Who knows: Maybe we would just end up with Ice Cube (“22 Jump Street”) should reflect on his roots as a rapper. His passionate performance of the music producer fearing for his status as a hit mogul stands out the most from “The High Note”, even without any rap interludes.
Conclusion: “The High Note” actually has all the necessary ingredients for a humorous, musical feel-good film. But the script sets the character and narrative focuses completely wrong. The end result is a shockingly low-music illustration of unsympathetic characters with first-world problems in an at least intoxicating backdrop.
“The High Note” can be seen in some cinemas from June 25th and will be available to rent from June 26th.
