recommended

I was totally surprised at how great this film.You could feel your paranoia rise as the film went on and as you gradually learned the details of the real situation.

The first must-see film of the year.

Amazing worth wacthing. So good. Biased but well made with many good points.

This documentary follows eight kids as they compete in the 1999 Scripps National Spelling Bee aiming to be in the finals taking place in Washington, D.C.By 1999, the competition had garnered some popular interest as it gets broadcast on ESPN.There are so many human emotions in these awkward sincere kids. It is beyond charming.There are more unpredictable turns than anything from Hollywood. The Washington rounds are more thrilling than any CGI-filled fights. This is a true life drama of an innocent American tradition.

Pointing to the boom microphone "Is this thing edible?"Showing a slice Americana, spellbound gives glimpse into the work, dedication , and intense stress these children put on themselves entering the national spelling bee competition. As we follow 8 contestants, and winners of regional spelling Bees. As they compete for the national title.The 8 children they follow are absolutely brilliant showing their great intelligence and memory recall. All coming from varying different backgrounds. it is a tribute to us about how hard work and a will to win can make you great at something, even something trivial as spelling in this now spell-checking world. This is the super bowl/World Cup/Olympics for these kids, and we get to enjoy the competition, and for someone not familiar with spelling Bee's it should not be this engrossing.This is an entertaining look at a unique American past time, and as the title suggests if you watch this you will be Spellbound.

The film starts with personal lives and motivations of eight spelling bee contestants in 1999 and culminates in a thrilling climax with the crowning of the champion. A lot of nail biting moments in the documentary are provided by the contest itself and cannot be attributed to any special efforts by the director. However, digging a little deeper, the documentary is exactly what it should be. It does not try to take any limelight away from the actual competition. Instead, through the stories of the hand-picked eight contestants, the film attempts to answer any and all questions that people are most likely to have while watching an arcane competition. Questions like- why do they do it? how do they feel? what motivates the parents?- may remain unanswered when the contest is televised. So, each significant moment in the bee is complemented with emotional interpretation of it through the eyes of the parents and participants. The documentary leaves you with a sense of satisfaction and wonderment. this is not only because the stories are exciting, but also because the director has laid out a minimalistic, yet adequate, framework to explore spelling bee and the people in it.

What makes good storytelling, I think, are good characters -- compelling and complex. More and more, documentaries are relying on a good story well told by either the filmmaker (Spellbound) or the subjects (Inlaws and Outlaws). Here, the themes are not terribly complex but they are genuine and heartfelt, owed in the main to the subjects who are all young kids competing for the National Spelling Bee Championship. Following a nicely diverse group of kids through the trials of training for the national bee and going through the various regional steps to get there, there's a compelling view of Americana -- the true Americana where the desire to succeed spans cultural and geographical boundaries I was most moved by the farm girl's family that sacrificed so much to get their daughter to the bee. You could see that fear and pride in the promise that one's children might actually do better than you.The one storyline that seemed uneven was that of the Indian-American family from LA. Perhaps the filmmakers intended our take on the father's obsession with his son's success to be ambivalent but it didn't resonate emotionally. If there was tension there in the father/son relationship, I didn't feel it. In any case, this is highly entertaining and completely absorbing.