Beyond the Lights (2014)
Critic Reviews
|
83
|
HitFix
Mbatha-Raw is shockingly good in creating both the "Noni" public persona and the real Noni.
|
|
83
|
Entertainment Weekly Leah Greenblatt
Both Mbatha-Raw and Parker are appealing, expressive actors, and writer-director Gina Prince-Bythewood (Love & Basketball) lets them breathe, filling in the boilerplate bones of the story with smartly nuanced commentary.
|
|
83
|
The A.V. Club
This is feel-good populist entertainment at heart.
|
|
80
|
Village Voice Stephanie Zacharek
A movie isn't a cliché when it can sing like this.
|
|
80
|
The Dissolve Genevieve Koski
Melodrama is defined by exaggerated characters and events, as well as overt appeals to emotion, and Beyond The Lights fits that mold ably and comfortably. But beneath the shiny surface of music-video imagery and true-loveisms lie some provocative ideas and deep truths about how people relate on a private level vs. a public one.
|
|
70
|
Variety Geoff Berkshire
Beyond the Lights is a strange beast, a music-industry romance that alternates freely between wisdom and mawkishness, caustic entertainment-biz critique and naive wish fulfillment, heartfelt flourishes and soap-opera shenanigans.
|
|
70
|
The Hollywood Reporter David Rooney
Gina Prince-Bythewood's entertaining music-biz melodrama is no less satisfying for the familiarity of its soapy trajectory.
|
|
63
|
Slant Magazine Chris Cabin
By rooting Noni's self-image issues in a controlling mother, the script provides the film with a tame, melodramatic structure that dulls the thorny matters of identity and expression at its center.
|
|
63
|
McClatchy-Tribune News Service Roger Moore
Beyond the Lights is another pain-behind-the-music romance.
But it's so well written, cast and played that we lose ourselves in the
comfort food familiarity of it all.
|
|
50
|
New York Post Kyle Smith
The teary-eyed sincerity of the music-industry drama Beyond the Lights is at times too much, but despite its cliche elements, the film at least has the feel of a passion project.
|
More Critic Reviews
See all external reviews for Beyond the Lights (2014) »See also
Awards | FAQ | User Reviews | User Ratings | External Reviews | Message Board