The High Note

The High Note (2020) is a music-industry comedy-drama from director Nisha Ganatra that you can watch online on iFILM. It plays out behind the velvet rope of LA's pop machine, where carrying coffee is supposed to come before running the show.

Maggie (Dakota Johnson) has spent years as personal assistant to Grace Davis (Tracee Ellis Ross), an aging superstar with the talent and the ego to match. The job looks glamorous and isn't. Maggie wants to produce records, not chase dry cleaning. So when Grace's manager (Ice Cube) nudges his client toward a safe but creatively dead deal, Maggie quietly starts shaping a young singer named David (Kelvin Harrison Jr.) on the side — and the small lies pile up fast.

The whole thing rides on the Johnson–Ross pairing, and Ross, daughter of Diana Ross, does her own singing here. It's a breezy, warm look at how hard it is to be taken seriously when everyone files you under "the help." With Bill Pullman, Melanie Griffith and Eddie Izzard along for the ride. Stream The High Note (2020) online on iFILM.