Review: Beyond the Lights

Director Gina Prince-Bythewood is best known for Love and Basketball, where she elevated a familiar love story with her confident direction and insightful look at the sacrifices made in pursuit of a dream as well as sexual equality and gender politics. The seriousness of the material was leavened by its occasional lapses into soap opera territory and the chemistry between Omar Epps and Sanaa Lathan. Prince-Bythewood's latest film, Beyond the Lights, also touches on similarly tough issues - the expected hypersexualisation of female singers and the manner in which good intentions curdle - that are presented in the guise of a showbiz sudser.

The film opens in London in 1998, where Brixton single mother Macy Jean (Minnie Driver) seethes with disappointment when her 10-year-old black daughter Noni's moving rendition of Nina Simone's "Blackbird" comes in second place. She instructs Noni to ditch the trophy. "You wanna be a runner-up? Or you wanna be a winner?" Flash forward to an adult Noni (Gugu Mbatha-Raw), scantily clad and writhing beside superstar white rapper boyfriend Kid Culprit (Richard Colson "Machine Gun Kelly" Baker). She is on the cusp of superstardom - after a string of hits with Kid Culprit, she's about to drop her own album, already anticipated to be the biggest debut by a female artist. The world is at her feet, there's nothing to cry about.

One can only imagine what transpired in those unseen years, what it must have taken to get from a Brixton council flat to a Beverly Hills penthouse suite. One of the many wonders of Mbatha-Raw's fierce and fragile portrayal is how she conveys a sense that, beneath all the glamorous trappings, there is something not quite right with Noni. This is crucial because when Noni attempts suicide by jumping off the balcony, one doesn't so much react to the act itself but the pain that motivated it.

Noni is rescued by Kaz (Nate Parker), an LAPD officer being groomed to run for a local political seat by his father (Danny Glover). Kaz sees her in a way that her mother, her entourage, the record label executives, the media, and her fans don't. He sees her in the way that perhaps Marilyn Monroe hoped someone could see Norma Jean instead of the blonde bombshell image she projected. However, that image is what sells and Macy goes into instant damage control, spinning the suicide attempt as a drunken accident. The label, concerned about the negative press, threaten to drop Noni unless she changes the public conversation by delivering a killer performance at the upcoming BET Awards and generally towing the line. Meanwhile, Kaz's father warns him against giving into his attraction for Noni. "This one ain't First Lady material," his father says, advising him to be mindful of the image he's presenting.

Beyond the Lights is concerned with the shedding of those images and the regaining of control. It's less invested in Kaz's trajectory than in Noni's, which is fitting as Kaz is a mere catalyst in her development. It is Noni who brings about the changes in her life, whether it be getting on that balcony ledge, or driving away with Kaz to watch planes take off and indulge in the comfort food consistently denied her, or keeping her mini-trench on during the BET Awards performance. The latter is particularly disturbing, with Kid Culprit getting back at Noni for dissolving their showmance by pushing her on the prop bed, groping her and shoving her face in his groin - each action clearly not part of the choreography, yet not making anyone in the audience think twice because Noni, like most female musicians, markets her sexuality in raunchy music videos and provocative magazine covers.

The film could have used some pruning and the ending wades neck-deep in schmaltz, but this is a nonetheless smart and textured work with a complicated woman at its center and a love story that is both tender and steamy.

Beyond the Lights

Directed by: Gina Prince-Bythewood

Written by: Gina Prince-Bythewood

Starring: Gugu Mbatha-Raw, Nate Parker, Minnie Driver, Danny Glover, Tyler Christopher, Benito Martinez, Richard Colson "Machine Gun Kelly" Baker