Though not without a certain homespun charm, director Jeff Blitz's debut documentary chronicling the ultimate overachiever rite of passage -- the spelling bee -- unfortunately isn't above the occasional easy laugh or cheap shot at the expense of the families it chronicles. There's a built-in narrative tension to any nonfiction competition film, and in this respect, Spellbound doesn't disappoint. Smartly, Blitz doesn't suggest that winning is dependent upon a child's socioeconomic status, desire to win, or even his or her raw knowledge. It's a crapshoot as to which one of the kids profiled in Spellbound will be the most successful, even if they themselves blame minor failures on their own inadequacies. That's the most compelling thread in the film: the psychological burden of the perennial teacher's pet. But Blitz allows some of his participants -- parents and kids alike -- to stammer on about geeky hobbies and other irrelevant personal habits to the point where the director's gaze sometimes crosses the line from sympathetic observer to nerd gawker. There's a certain social ineptitude involved with any academic endeavor, but after spending so much time with his subjects, you'd think that Blitz would have confined scenes of it to the beginning of his film instead of far into its last third.