The High Note (2020)

Directed by: Nisha Ganatra | 108 minutes | drama, music | Actors: Dakota Johnson, Tracee Ellis Ross, Kelvin Harrison Jr., Bill Pullman, Zoe Chao, June Diane Raphael, Eugene Cordero, Marc Evan Jackson, Eddie Izzard, Ice Cube, Jonathan Freeman, Parvesh Cheena, Bianca Lopez

The apple usually doesn’t fall far from the tree. If you have a famous father or mother, there is a good chance that you will end up in showbiz yourself. Take Nisha Ganatra’s music film ‘The High Note’ (2020) for example; the two lead actresses both have well-known parents. Tracee Ellis Ross is the daughter of soul diva Diana Ross from her first marriage (to record label Robert Ellis Ross) and, like her mother, she can also sing and act quite nicely. Her co-star Dakota Johnson is the daughter of actors Melanie Griffith and Don Johnson and the granddaughter of Tippi ‘The Birds’ Hedren. Her stepfather is Antonio Banderas. If you already skipped around on film sets and in music studios as a toddler, it is of course not surprising that you can often be found there even when you are older. Although Johnson has admitted in interviews that she finds it confrontational when her mother became intimate with an opponent on set. “I also remember a scene where an actor punched my mother in the face. I went crazy! I couldn’t handle that at all.” She also found it difficult to realize that it is public property. “And then movie stars used to be only visible when they walked the red carpet. Nowadays we are photographed and thrown on the internet all the time.” Despite this, Johnson, like her parents and grandparents, opted for a career as an actor. Because say yourself; what else should you do when you grow up in Hollywood?

In ‘The High Note’, Tracee Ellis Ross plays a music diva of her mother’s stature in her heyday. This Grace Davis is a fantastic singer, professional and legendary, but also demanding and at times insufferable. Although she hasn’t released any new material for a while, she continues to tour the US and because her ‘old’ songs are still rock solid, she still attracts full houses. Her loyal personal assistant Maggie (Dakota Johnson) makes them show up and do all kinds of odd jobs. Grace’s manager Jack Robertson (Ice Cube) believes his protégé has had her day and wants to persuade her to land a lucrative residency deal in Las Vegas. Meanwhile, Maggie dreams of a career as a music producer and is secretly working on a live Grace Davis album. In a supermarket, she runs into young David (Kelvin Harrison Jr.), who turns out to be a talented musician. Maggie sees great potential in the boy and boasts that she is a professional music producer and can help him get his ‘big break’. That lie will eventually come out. Moreover, it proves difficult for Maggie to combine her own ambitions with her job as Grace’s assistant. Maggie may have the best of intentions when she tries to persuade her to break with her record company (so she can finally release new work), but Grace knows better than anyone how difficult it is to stay afloat in the hard music industry. Especially at her age.

Music films like this often follow a well-trodden path of development and ‘The High Note’ is no exception. The film’s director, Nisha Ganatra, impressed last year with ‘Late Night’ (2019), a satirical drama about the ups and downs of a talk show. While that film was supported by a strong script by multi-talented Mindy Kaling (and a convincing lead by the always fantastic Emma Thompson), ‘The High Note’ has to make do with the inexperienced Flora Greeson as screenwriter. The result is a less original story on the theme of ‘follow your dream’, which goes off the rails by the end because it is too eager to please its audience. However, the acting is strong, especially from Tracee Ellis Ross, who not only seizes the opportunity to show that she is an all-rounder, but also convinces as the eccentric and demanding superstar who completely takes over that poor Maggie. She carries this film with verve and knows how to cover up the lesser points in a stylish way with humor, charm and talent. Johnson is decent, but no more than that. In the supporting roles, in addition to Harrison and Ice Cube, we also see Bill Pullman as Maggie’s DJing father Max, Eddie Izzard, music producer/DJ Diplo and – nice detail – Johnson’s mother Melanie Griffith. A big plus of this film is the soundtrack, with great tracks by soul greats such as Aretha Franklin, Sam Cooke and Donny Hathaway. Ross himself sings the song ‘Love Myself’, which was released as a single in the US.

Despite the somewhat overly imposed ‘follow your dream’ message and an all too emphatic urge to please, ‘The High Note’ looks pleasantly away. This is mainly thanks to the strong Tracee Ellis Ross, who feels like a fish in water in a film in which she can express all her talents.