Nisha Ganatra’s “The High Note” means well in its formulaic “inside look” at the music industry, but, more specifically, the sexism that runs rampant by chaining down female singers and preventing them from spreading their creative wings. Have you tapped out yet? A relentless algorithm of music-industry cliches, Ganatra’s film makes Bradley Cooper’s “A Star Is Born” remake look like “Citizen Kane” in comparison. There is absolutely no narrative risk-taking in the film’s tackling of Maggie Sherwood (Dakota Johnson), a personal assistant who dreams of producing records and her boss, Grace Davis (Tracee Ellis Ross), clearly inspired by Diana Ross, who is torn between making new music and starting what would be a successful, but oldies-act jaunt in Vegas. Davis’ longtime manager (a miscast Ice Cube) desperately wants her to take the Vegas gig, but Maggie encourages her to do the former. Flora Greeson’s screenplay lays it on a little too thick, it lacks any sort of subtlety needed to make this rags-to-riches story believable. It doesn’t help that the speechifying is laid on thick, especially when Ganatra and Greeson try to painstakingly turn their film into a female empowerment diatribe. The result isn’t ingrained in any kind of reality, it’s pure fantasy-making. [D]
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