Rating summary

Movie		3.0
Video		4.5
Audio		4.5
Extras		2.5
Overall		3.0

Beyond the Lights Blu-ray Movie Review

A star is manufactured.

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman February 27, 2015

Trade papers like Variety have been rather breathlessly announcing the perhaps unexpected success of Fox’s new Empire series, a soap operatic show built around the wild and wooly world of a hip hop music label. Not only has Empire blasted out of the gate in a seldom seen fashion, it’s managed to build upon its already impressive audience numbers week by week, becoming as close to a phenomenon as broadcast television has witnessed in quite a while. That would seem to provide prima facie evidence that it is possible to create a compelling drama out of the contemporary music industry, something that Beyond the Lights is only able to do in fits and starts, in between fairly rote attempts to deliver a tale of a Beyoncé like chanteuse whose personal problems spill over into her professional life. Gugu Mbatha-Raw, who made such an impression in Belle, is on hand as purple haired songstress Noni Jean, a young woman poised to be the “next big thing” in the music industry who nonetheless is nursing some fairly severe psychological issues which ultimately lead her to a hotel balcony where she considers taking her own life. That moment of weakness ends up having considerable consequences for Noni in both the personal and professional arenas, sending Beyond the Lights on its own soap operatic journey of personal exploration and realization. The film is about as trite as they come from several standpoints, including in its depictions of Noni’s harridan stage mother named Macy Jean (a rather severe looking Minnie Driver) and a way too convenient romance angle involving an impossibly decent Los Angeles police officer named Kaz Nicol (Nate Parker) who rescues Noni and then of course falls hopelessly in love with her.

Beyond the Lights sets up the dysfunctional relationship between Noni and Macy in a prologue of sorts that shows a ten year old Noni (India Jean-Jacques, not exactly a dead ringer for Mbatha-Raw) warbling Nina Simone’s “Blackbird” at a school talent contest, where she ultimately wins the First Runner Up prize. (It's maybe just a little hilarious that a hairdresser Macy brings the little girl to in preparation for the contest immediately knows that Noni's song choice is the Nina Simone tune and not the probably better known Lennon-McCartney classic.) First Runner Up is frankly not good enough for Macy, who grabs her daughter and leaves the proceedings in a huff, quickly telling Noni to ditch her trophy since it doesn’t represent the absolute top rung of success.

Years later Noni has matriculated into the professional music industry, though initially as a kind of adjunct to a popular rapper named Kid Culprit (Machine Gun Kelly). Noni is being managed by Macy, the sort of stage mother we’ve seen in countless other offerings including everything from, well, 1933’s Stage Mother to better known properties like Gypsy. Noni is also being forced into a hypersexualized image courtesy of her record label, and the strain is beginning to show.

The tensions overflow one evening when Noni makes a desperate decision to kill herself, setting up a cascading series of events that simultaneously threatens her professional life while also offering her a peek at a more normal existence out of the glare of the klieg lights. Coming to her rescue is the impossibly good looking and muscled Kaz, a guy who frankly should be in show business as much as Noni. Kaz, though, has his sights set on political office despite his current job as a cop. When true love beckons both of these individuals, they find that professional pressures as well as the discontent of their parental units (Danny Glover is on hand as Kaz’s dad) stand in the way of happily ever after—at least for a little while.

Beyond the Lights is so relentlessly formulaic that it would be easy to dismiss it as little more than a very special music video interspersed with some fairly turgid soap operatic elements. But perhaps unexpectedly writer-director Gina Prince-Blythewood (Love & Basketball, The Secret Life of Bees) manages to find a bit of truth inside what amounts to an oft told tale. Mbatha-Raw delivers the goods as Noni, both in the musical elements and especially in the offstage sequences with Parker, where she brings a low key resoluteness to Noni’s decision to embrace who she is, rather than whom others want her to be. That includes a frank admission of her suicide attempt, something that drives several supporting characters to the brink of apoplexy.

Ultimately while there’s certainly nothing new here, Beyond the Lights offers a fairly trenchant view of the state of the modern music industry, where image is in some ways more important than talent. Noni never quite gets to announce herself as “Mrs. Norman Maine” (to reference another famous film about the rigors of show business), but she at least has the potential of a happy ending divorced from the pressures of superstardom.

Beyond the Lights Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Beyond the Lights is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.78:1. Digitally shot with the Arri Alexa, this presentation offers the typical clarity (if occasional flatness) of this format, along with occasional minor murk in more dimly lit sequences. Nothing has been radically color graded here, giving the bulk of the film a very natural, appealingly authentic looking palette that helps outré elements like Noni's purple hair pop really well. Detail is excellent and fine detail is quite commendable in close-ups. Contrast and black levels are solid. There are no issues with image instability and no compression artifacts to cause any worry.

Beyond the Lights Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Beyond the Lights' lossless DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 mix is suitably bombastic in presenting the bass heavy musical elements, while also providing nuance in quieter sequences (including a couple of ballads). The music is the chief way the surrounds are exploited, and the song score (including the Academy Award nominated "Grateful") provides excellent immersion and a rather forceful low end at times. Dialogue is also presented cleanly with no problems whatsoever.

Beyond the Lights Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Deleted Scenes (1080p; 6:05) features optional commentary by Gina Prince-Blythewood, Tami Reiker and Terilyn Shropshire.


• Escape to Mexico 2.0 (1080p; 1:53) offers an alternate take of Mbatha-Raw and Parker frolicking on the beach and then frolicking in a somewhat different manner inside.


• Changing the Conversation (1080p; 4:58) is an EPK featuring interviews centered around director Gina Prince-Blythewood.


• "Masterpiece" Music Video (1080p; 3:24)


• Gary Theard: Boom Man (1080p; 4:28) is a nice little profile of the film's late boom operator.


• Theatrical Trailer (1080p; 1:46)


• Commentary by Gina Prince-Blythewood, Tami Reiker and Terilyn Shropshire (Director's Version Only). Prince-Blythewood takes the lead here, augmented by her cinematographer and editor. This is a largely anecdotal commentary focusing on Prince-Blythewood's vision for the film.


• Theatrical Version (1080p; 1:56:15) and Director's Version (1080p; 1:56:31)

Beyond the Lights Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Gugu Mbatha-Raw and a mercurial Minnie Driver help to elevate Beyond the Lights above its undeniably rote and cliché ridden story. Noni's tale has been told many times before, in one form or another, but the visceral intensity of the performances, as well as authentic feeling recreation of the chaotic modern music industry, help to distract from the more formulaic elements weighing down the story. Never very revelatory, Beyond the Lights still manages to be surprisingly effective. Technical merits are strong, the supplementary package is appealing, and Beyond the Lights comes Recommended.