Movie Review: Beyond The Lights

Beyond The Lights (2014) directed by Gina Prince-Bythewood. With Gugu Mbatha-Raw, Nate Parker, Minnie Driver and Danny Gloven.


I read about this movie recently on a blog and the writer said:"I you liked 'Safe Heaven' you should really watch this movie..." 
Did I like 'Safe Heaven'? You can bet I did!
Since the movie's background is the music industry, it shouldn't be surprising that it has a killing soundtrack and yet...I found myself amazed by Nina Simon's "Blackbird" sung by the protagonist and al the other songs chosen. 

But let's skip all of this "bla bla" and let's get to the review!

Noni is a rising promise of the music industry, but in order to become a star (and please her music label) she has to take compromises, like fake a relationship with a promising rapper or dress and behave like the sexy and voluptuous young lady she is not.

After winning an award (and drinking for celebrating it!), Noni head back to her hotel suite and gets on the balcony, wanting to put an end to her strefull, with constant pressure life.
And she'd succeeded if it wasn't for Kaz, the young police officer who was there as part of her security.

After saving her from falling down and an initial moment of weirdness, the two start spending time together, discover each other's hopes and fears and how their daily life really is: Noni is super busy promoting herself and her upcoming debut album while Kaz is trying to make L.A a better place to live not only for celebs, but also (and mostly) for normal people, by doing his job and also trying to become a politician.

When their relationship starts to appear on the cover of magazine's both Noni's mother and ex fake boyfriend do their best to tear them apart, by almost ruin Kaz's polical ambitions. 
They decide to runaway for a few days and go to Mexico, where Noni begins to have confidence in herself, but these perfect moments where there's just the two of them won't last forever....

As I said in the introduction, I loved the soundtrack. It really completes the story and makes you get into the events. The leading characters are awesome, I particularly appreciated the fact that the two of them couldn't be more different: she's English, he's American. She's (about to be) famous, he certainly is not and differences between the two pop out like these for the entire movie....

Related Movies:

- Notthing Hill

- Win a Date with Tad Hamilton

- Another Ciderella Story

Ranking : 4½/5