James R | On 31, May 2020

Director: Nisha Ganatra
Cast: Dakota Johnson, Tracee Ellis Ross, Ice Cube, Kelvin Harrison Jr.
Certificate: 12

Late Night director Nisha Ganatra delivers another feel-good success with The High Note, which has skipped cinemas for a digital release but remains no less of a crowd-pleaser. The film follows Maggie (Dakota Johnson), a young assistant to Grace (Tracee Ellis Ross), a superstar singer, who aspires to one day be a music producer. By day, she sorts clothes, fetches and carries drinks and drives her boss to get takeaway food. By night, she mixes music in her bedroom, sneaks into the recording studio and keeps her flatmate up by forgetting to wear headphones.

When she meets David (Kelvin Harrison Jr.), an up-and-coming musician, she convinces him that she’s legit and starts to work with him out-of-hours. And so the stage is set for a romantic comedy laced with professional tensions and workplace drama. But while that sounds like too many tracks to sync up, The High Note works by focusing as much on the relationship between Maggie and Grace – a bond that gradually becomes one of mutual respect, rather than the rivalry or resentment that showbiz dramas often hinge upon.

Tracee Ellis Ross is superb as the ageing diva, whose career is at the point where her manager is suggesting a Vegas residency rather than a new album, while Johnson manages to be likeable even as Maggie’s confidence and determination threaten to up-end her industry connections. It helps that she has sparky chemistry with Kelvin Harrison Jr., who is hugely charming as the talented David. Ice Cube also offers amusing support as Grace’s bullish producer.

Uniting it all is a strong backbeat of genuinely good music, from Ross and Harrison Jr.’s superb vocals to the script’s keen appreciation of the role a drum riff or guitar lick plays in the production of a song. It’s a difficult feat to capture those things on screen, and Nisha Ganatra and writer Flora Greeson make it look easy. Even a late narrative contrivance is buoyed along by that combination of toe-tapping music and winning performances. The result isn’t surprising or as smoothly plotted as it could be, but The High Note strikes an enjoyably upbeat groove that will have you singing its soundtrack to yourself for days.

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