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Spellbound

2002

Jeffrey Blitz

Documentary

7.0

723

Documentary Who would have thought the most suspenseful competition on television could revolve around a bunch of 14 year-olds hooked on spelling? SPELLBOUND, the award-winning film, proves why the National Spelling Bee is one of the highest rated specials on ESPN -- a nail-biting face-off among hundreds of teens who train as rigorously as any Olympic athlete on their heroic quest for glory.

	Author	Review
United Kingdom	Time Out	"It's as enthralling as any fiction - and I'm still holding out for those kids' love lives..."	POS
United Kingdom	Jamie Russell BBC	"A hilarious look at one of America's best-loved institutions (…) Rating: ★★★★ (out of 5)"	POS
United States	A. O. Scott The New York Times	"Blitz's real achievement (...) is his attention to the contestants and their families (...) It's impossible not to root for each one of the [spellers]"	POS
United States	Sarah Hepola Austin Chronicle	"[It] becomes as tense as any classic nail-biter, and as good, old-fashioned drama goes, it doesn't get much better than 'Spellbound' (…) Rating: ★★★★ (out of 5)"	POS
United States	Chuck Rudolph Slant	"There’s only one word it can spell without any trouble whatsoever: B-U-L-L-S-H-I-T (...) It’s a movie that clearly never picked up a thesaurus to check out adjectives like honest or sincere (…) Rating: ★ (out of 4)"	NEG
United States	David Edelstein Slate	"The movie becomes a nail-biter, the audience hanging on every letter"	POS

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