Mark Reviews Movies: THE HIGH NOTE

Follow on Facebook | Follow on Twitter | Become a Patron

Review by Mark Dujsik | May 28, 2020

The High Note features a mostly predictable story (aside from one unexpected twist at the end of the second act), but screenwriter Flora Greeson and director Nisha Ganatra do enough with the little details that the film's reliance on formula doesn't matter too much. The most important little detail is that the filmmakers care about these characters. As a result, the drama of the story arises, not from forced and external complications, but from each character's own desires and how those goals conflict with the other characters' expectations for themselves and others.

That's a subtle but vital key to the success of a story such as this, which possesses no great ambitions and treads all-too familiar terrain. It's a story about the music industry, and in its low-key way, the film is actually about several stories within that business.

We have the upstart personal assistant to a famous singer, determined to break free of such menial work and to prove herself to be capable of much more than being a gofer. We have the famous singer herself, whose celebrity remains as strong as it ever was but whose career has been reduced to singing all of the old hits everyone already knows and loves.

Beyond the assistant, we have all of the people who make the singer's life and job run like clockwork, hanging out in the periphery until they're needed and making sure that the singer is successful, comfortable, and happy enough that their own jobs are secure. Finally, we have the promising young talent, who knows how good he is on a small stage and in a home studio, only to become insecure when the spotlight of big venues and professional recording sessions come calling.

There's a lot here, and the most noteworthy aspect of Greeson's screenplay is how well all of these stories gel together. One could remove the stuff about the legendary singer's other employees, but then you'd lose the conflict for the personal assistant: the temptation of coasting on a guaranteed and steady gig against the gamble of setting off on her own, as well as trying to juggle the responsibilities of both jobs at once. Greeson could have dropped the subplot with the younger singer, but then we would have missed out on seeing that the assistant can be more than an assistant. It also would have removed the juxtaposition between one artist doing what he loves, purely for the love of it, and another just going through the motions, because love was replaced by fame and financial comfort a while ago.

Everything here is here for a reason. Yes, that's a matter of thoughtful plotting, but additionally, it's simply because these characters, their dreams, their uncertainties, and their fears complement each other so well.

Specifically, there's Maggie (Dakota Johnson), the assistant, who rushes to and fro around Los Angeles to make sure her boss has everything she wants and needs before she even knows she wants or needs it. The boss is Grace Davis (Tracee Ellis Ross), a multiple-award-winning singer who's preparing for yet another world tour.

Grace has the ego of an artist in her prime (There's an amusing montage that cuts between the shows—filled with easy confidence—and the rehearsals—scolding the crew or the backup singers, getting frustrated, forgetting in which city she's currently performing). In a way, that's true. Everyone knows and still talks about her with respect and adoration, but there are also whispers that Grace just sings the same songs over and over and over again. Her manager Jack (Ice Cube), who has worked with Grace since she started her career, is fine with this. In fact, he's trying to get her a residency in Las Vegas, where she can perform those old hits every night of the week for a few years.

The younger singer is David (Kelvin Harrison Jr.), whom Maggie meets at grocery store, chats with about music, and sees performing in the parking lot. Maggie's dream is to become a music producer. She has already mixed a version of Grace's forthcoming live album in her spare time, but David (who seems quite well-off for a guy whose only job is doing small music gigs—although there's a reason for that, which Greeson keeps close to the chest) could be her entryway to that fantasy career.

One can probably predict the resulting plot beats from this setup, and there's no denying that Greeson's hits every one of those beats that we have come to expect from this type of story, especially in the third act, when all of those conflicts cause the assorted relationships to fall apart so that the climax is a series of reconciliations.

There's also an undeniable sense of apprehension of the inevitability of certain developments, most notably the obvious route of a romantic connection between Maggie and David (Ganatra and the two actors, though, are playful with that during one scene, in which music composition almost becomes a kind of foreplay). That development is mostly disappointing because the film is so convincing in its depiction of the professional dynamics between all of these characters.

The performances do a lot of work here, with Johnson and Harrison charming their way through the tests of their professional/personal relationship, Ross displaying the vanity and vulnerability of someone realizing her star is slowly fading, and the assorted side players and cameos (including Eddie Izzard, as a pragmatic rock star, and Bill Pullman, as Maggie's father) making brief but noteworthy impressions. They aren't doing all the work, though, because the story of The High Note, as formulaic and predictable as it may be, begins and ends with its characters, their passions, and their relationships.

Back to Home

Buy Related Products