Watch Beyond the Lights For Free

How sad is this?

Good story, Not enough for a whole film

everything you have heard about this movie is true.

If you like to be scared, if you like to laugh, and if you like to learn a thing or two at the movies, this absolutely cannot be missed.

This was lovely, uplifting, entertaining and absolutely terrific! I totally loved this film. I was so pleasantly surprised. It wasn't what I expected. It's not a black love story - it's a LOVE story where the characters just happen to be black. Mbatha and Parker played their roles exceptionally well. They were endearing and flawed, bemused and brave and they portrayed the star and the cop to perfection. Driver was terrific as the evil, money-grabbing mom-manager. Oh yeah, and the movie was cool too. The film had the right feel, budget, cinematography, dialogue and dramatic twists. Everyone should see this movie, really, I mean everyone!!

Review: This is another one of those movies which had a great trailer but it turned out to be pretty disappointing. I thought that it was going to be like the hit series, the Empire but it turned out to be about a worldwide, music superstar who is struggling to fame and all of the attention from the media. With her new album due to come out soon, Noni craves normality in her life but her mum and her record company end up pushing her to the edge, which leads to her trying to commit suicide. At that moment, the cop that was protecting her, Kaz, comes to her rescue and the news hits the tabloids which puts there relationship under the microscope. After a while, the pressure becomes a bit too much for the couple, so they escape to Mexico were they deeply fall in love with each other, against Kaz's dad and Noni's mums wishes. It isn't long before Noni is spotted in Mexico so she has to return to her demanding pop career. By this time, she has turned a corner in her personal life and she seeks more control in her music career. Her new boyfriend thinks it's a bad idea for her to return to that life because he saw how much it was destroying her. From there the movie seemed like it was going round and round in circles and I was hoping for a major twist or something interesting to happen. The main character, Noni, just seemed like a spoilt brat who needed some decent guidance. The cop also seemed quite dull and easily influenced by his father so the characters didn't help this predictable storyline. Basically, it reminded a lot of the Bodyguard which was a much better movie because Whitney was actually a true superstar. I liked the fact that the director was showing the life of a star through there eyes, but the storyline dried up after a while and it became quite boring. Watchable but nothing that amazing!Round-Up: I wasn't that impressed with Gugu Mbatha-Raw, who played Noni, because I failed to have an emotional connection to her character. Thats not totally to blame on her performance because she did try to make her character seem real but the film seemed to have skipped the important parts of her career, like her road to stardom. At 32, she has starred in movies like Jupiter Ascending, Odd Thomas, Straightheads and Larry Crowne but I doubt that people will remember her in any of those movies! She played the lead in Belle pretty well and she has a role in the upcoming Beauty and the Beast movie so she might hit her peak around then. Nate Parker has made about 20 movies in his career which started in 2005 in Cruel World. He has made appearances in Non-Stop, Pride, The Great Debaters, Red Tails, Arbitage and Ain't Them Bodies Saints and at 35 years old, I'm sure that were going to see him more on the big screen. The director, Gina Prince-Bythewood, also directed the Secret Life Of Bees, which I quite enjoyed, Love & Basketball and a couple of episodes of the Bernie Mac Show and Everybody Hates Chris so she hasn't had loads of experience behind the camera. She did do quite a good job with this movie but I did find the storyline sketchy and uninteresting after a while.Budget: $7million Worldwide Gross: $15millionI recommend this movie to people who are into their drama/romances about a music superstar who struggles with fame and media attention, until she falls in love with her bodyguard which changes her life. 4/10

"Do you want to be a runner up, or do you want to be a winner?"Fifteen minutes into Beyond the Lights and I was about to dismiss Gina Prince- Bythewood's film as yet another formulaic celebrity romance trying to be this generation's The Bodyguard. But after the story and the characters were introduced, I realized there was much more to the simple premise. This is a character driven film and despite the familiar premise the movie is carried by the wonderful performances from the cast and their well written characters. Gina uses a familiar tale but manages to give each character their very own identity and that takes the story to unfamiliar dramatic territory avoiding the common clichés found in modern romance movies. Bythewood made an impact in 2000 with her feature film debut, Love & Basketball and she followed the success of that movie with The Secret Life of Bees. Beyond the Lights is her third feature film, and it made such an impact on me that I want to see her two previous movies now. It's not easy to find intelligent romantic films nowadays with strong performances, so that makes me appreciate Beyond the Lights all that more for avoiding cheap clichés and deciding to focus on the characters and giving them depth instead of simply trying to deliver cheesy lines and force romantic moments. Every character in this film could've very easily played a stereotype, but Gina avoids it by giving each one of them their own moment.Noni (Gugu Mbatha-Raw) is a young and talented British R&B singer who is on the verge of becoming an international super star thanks to her collaborations with rapper Kid Culprit (Machine Gun Kelly) with whom she shares a relationship with. On the night in which they win an important music award for their hit single, Noni tries to commit suicide by jumping off from the hotel balcony, but she's saved by the police officer who was guarding her room. Kaz (Nate Parker) is an honest cop who is trying to make a difference in his community and is aspiring to be a politician by following the advice of his father, Captain Nicol (Danny Glover), a well respected man in the police force. After the balcony incident Noni's mother and agent, Macy Jean (Minnie Driver) downplays the suicide attempt by telling the media that her daughter was simply drunk and therefore almost fell over the balcony. Kaz isn't happy about having to lie to the media, but he is more concerned about Noni not trying to get help because it is evident that the pressure has gotten to her, and her mother isn't helping by downplaying the issue. He gets close to Noni, and it is evident that the two have chemistry, but she doesn't seem like a good fit for his political aspirations given the latest scandals she's been in and the sexy image she's selling. At the same time he realizes that this isn't who she really is and that her mother and recording label producers are simply creating her image and not allowing her to have her own voice. When he discovers who she truly is, the two become romantically involved and the plot takes off from there. Minnie Driver's character could have easily been one dimensional playing this mean and controlling mom/manager, but Gina avoids those stereotypes and gives her more room to work with despite how easy it is to dislike her for turning her daughter into this sex symbol product. This is just one example of how Gina decides to direct this character driven film giving each one a voice of their own. Another director perhaps wouldn't of included those small moments or conversations where we get a sense of why the character behaves in such a way. Nate Parker delivers a solid lead performance as this credible and likable young man who is trying to make a difference in his community, but it's Gugu who steals every scene she's in. At first she seems to be playing a similar character to Rihanna, but once she finds her own voice her character goes through an impressive transformation. She gives an explosive and emotional performance and wins everyone over with her wonderful voice. There is a scene where she sings a cappella in an outdoor bar in Mexico that is breathtaking and gripping at the same time. My only complaint is that the film does lose some of its steam towards the end of the movie, but the time spent with each one of these characters still made this a very enjoyable experience.http://estebueno10.blogspot.com/

First, let's get this right – very few of use writing reviews really know what it's like when the stars are off stage. We can take any number of movies or TV shows/episodes or magazine articles or books and try and extrapolate, but we don't really know. Anything we watch, like this movie, is still truncated fantasy. So I will not speak of how realistic this movie is about being off stage.Ultimately, this movie is a love story, and for those of you who have seen Begin Again, there will be some familiarities, even down to some of the movements and looks from Kiera Knightly mimicked by Gugu Mbatha-Raw. But, this is a different, more complex story, and comparisons are certainly unjust. Within this movie, there are issues of sexual expression and exploitation in the entertainment industry. There are issues of domestic violence (two aspects), interracial relationships (two), parent-child relationships (two), the inability to hide from fame (different aspects), and, of course, the drama surrounding two people entering a relationship. (This is another issue not mentioned here that is a major theme/component to the movie, but not in IMDb description. It is probably mentioned in other reviews, but this is a non-spoiler review.)With so many different aspects, not to mention that Nate Parker plays a Black police officer in the LAPD, it is difficult to deal with any one in any depth. But Gina Prince-Bythewood does quite well at addressing them (though I wish she would have delved into the race issues more) with a bit more than surface tension. None of them do get the depth they deserve, but this happens with stories that try to address different issues. Whatever the critique, none of the issues disrupt the story, and with one or two exceptions, are not really overly dramatized. As for the performances, we must pay attention to Gugu Mbatha-Raw. As she did in Belle, with a quality cast, here she performs with excellence, most notably playing many scenes with Minnie Driver. Her performance had depth that feels natural in its entirety, in a way that her co-star, Nate Parker (also good), was not quite as natural. Minnie Driver is who she is, and when she is damning, she is a force. Here she is somewhat restrained by the role, but when she released, she is lets fly, both subtly and with force. The other major actor is Danny Glover, who has been able to find his place with supporting actor roles as he ages. And here, he does very well, at times, seeming to push Nate Parker along.While I would have liked this movie to delve into the exploitation aspect, and even do some examination of the race issue in music, particularly Black, female performers, there were lots of in- betweens and unspokens mixed with movements and expressions, mostly by Gugu Mbatha-Raw, that lets us know that any greater exploration of these (or others mentioned above) would take this movie close to the 3 hour mark. As is, at nearly 2 hours, it flowed well that it didn't seem like 2 hours. And even though the love story aspect is filled with clichés, those clichés are mixed with in with other, more complex aspects. Even the most glaring cliché for me – the road trip – was obvious in many, many ways, the craft of the direction and craft acting made it easy to forgive, and easy to forgive all the other love story clichés.Recommended, mostly for a quiet evening. If one has kids, especially young or middle teens, this is worth watching with them and having discussions about exploitation of females (not just in visual entertainment, as this movie does show). One final note that will be missed by most – sorry people – White reviewers, is the issue with Black females and self-identity. There are several moments in this film that address it, and as a White reviewer, I can only speak of it because I work in a predominantly Black community and discuss such issues. But, again, as it was there and easily missed speaks to the craft of the movie. More power to Misses Prince-Bythewood and Mbatha-Raw.