Beyond the Lights (2014)

Clever and entertaining enough to recommend even to members of the 1%

I wanted to like it more than I actually did... But much of the humor totally escaped me and I walked out only mildly impressed.

It’s fine. It's literally the definition of a fine movie. You’ve seen it before, you know every beat and outcome before the characters even do. Only question is how much escapism you’re looking for.

This movie tries so hard to be funny, yet it falls flat every time. Just another example of recycled ideas repackaged with women in an attempt to appeal to a certain audience.

At one point in this cold mess of a movie, Noni's mother, played by Minnie, shouts, "You're a bloody cliché!" Bingo, Minnie, Noni, Gugu et al., you're ALL bloody clichés. There's the spoiled little pop star who has absofreakinlutely everything a girl could want, except true love and the will to live. There's the harridanish stage mom whose nastiness translates to excellent negotiating skills with music industry execs. There's the impossibly dull love interest - a cop who aspires to be a city councilman, just writing that made me yawn. What made it a little bit interesting for me was the way the black characters were all good and the white characters were all either evil or incompetent. Me, I'm Italian; my grandparents came to the USA 60 years after the American Civil War ended, so you guys fight it out amongst yourselves, please. It was just nice to see the caucasians get theirs for a change.Btw, the music doesn't even try to be good.

Maybe I need to watch this movie again. Nice visuals decent acting from the leads but so formulaic in it's composition that it never grabbed me. Maybe it's just not my kind of movie, the best parts for me were the very beginning and end. The beginning gave me hope for more substance, but it jumped too fast to the future and the dialogue was clichéd and predictable. I was touched by her final song in which she was free to express her new found sense of self and freedom. Everything in between was eye candy and for me at least not a lot of chemistry between the leads. I can surprise myself when I'm at odds with the others who watched and found something different, but I trust my own judgment as my own vision. That's my 2 cents, nice movie but didn't elicit or bring out much in the way of feeling for me. Hey no one is right or wrong but I turned it off 20 minutes before the end, the predictability was embarrassing. Watched her final performance this morning and was worth it, but see above, as a whole just didn't work, "for me".

This was a tremendous movie not only with the song lyrics but the making behind the movie. Gugu plays this to a tee and she is a fine upcoming actress I hope makes it in the movie world. But it is all about the meaning "between the lines"! You must pay attention to the very beginning and the dialogue to understand the rest. However, the meaning of life is showing who you are, and being proud of it...and if you are afraid of being the "real you" it may take the "love" and "compassion" of a stronger force to bring it out in you! This movie should appeal to both genders but I know every women globally would enjoy it! It brings tears of joy streaming down one's cheeks! Congrats Gugu and Nate for a brilliant performance by both of you! LadyAnn68

This is a surprisingly good film.. with a reasonable storyline.. good casting/ acting.. above average production values... and a music score that fits the overall tone/ setting of the film. All in all, this is well done movie-making .. above most all others in the genre. There are not many surprises, but all else works, so that all time spent is fairly solid entertainment. And a couple of moments are truly special.. her rendition of Blackbird near the end is spellbinding.. few could do it as well.. casting her was genius. And kudos to the camera and editing crews.. seconds can make or break a good film. For romantic dramas from this year, this has to be considered one of the best.