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It’s a classic boy-meets-girl story. Boy is a police officer subbing for a fellow cop who provides city-funded, in-hotel security for celebrities. Girl is an R&B singer whose career is about to go supernova but is repulsed by the trappings of fame and decides to hurl herself off her Beverly Hills balcony just hours after winning a Billboard award. He grabs her, they lock eyes, he says that he “can see her” (maybe he just rented Avatar) and thus begins a love affair that must conquer all odds.
But this isn’t just a showbiz Notting Hill. The twist is that both of our conflicted lovers are facing the same struggle. Noni Jean (Gugu Mbatha-Raw) has been groomed to be a pop sensation since before she could speak. Mild – but extremely handsome – Officer Kaz Nicol (Nate Parker) is on a fast track toward politics. These are good, big-hearted people who feel a sense of purpose, but both are ready to lose their minds if their respective parents don’t step off.
For Kaz it’s his father, a police captain played by Danny Glover, wearing the struggle in the cracks of his face, organizing dinners with influential black preachers. Noni’s case is more nuanced, wincing as she bends her talents for the lowest common denominator, led by her driven “momager” played by Minnie Driver. The suicide attempt is swiftly swept under the rug as “too much celebratory champagne mixed with dangerous stiletto heels”, and Kaz begrudgingly does his part to sustain the lie at a hastily called press conference. His father quickly recognises the benefits of being a trending topic; her mother tells the record label that the upcoming BET awards number will be so hot it’ll stop the distasteful hashtags in their tracks.
Clearly these two need two kids need a getaway. Their retreat to a beautiful-but-unpretentious bungalow on the Mexican coast (in which Noni finally removes her periwinkle weave for some PG-13-style lovemaking) is arguably the best ad for Travelocity-type sites ever made. This emotional apogee comes after some soap opera-style struggle, but in the best possible sense. The courtship of Noni and Kaz is classic Hollywood melodrama, sharply written for the information age.
Written and directed by Gina Prince-Bythewood (Love and Basketball), Beyond the Lights leaves the topic of race undiscussed for almost the entirety of the film. But this absence makes a strong presence. Noni’s hit video is opposite a white rapper named Kid Culprit (Machine Gun Kelly). When she appears onstage with him to accept an award, her enormous gold choke chains could easily be mistaken for shackles.
On a day Noni invites her “boy scout” Kaz to ride along with her , we witness a myriad of indignities as the popular press chops Noni up and serves her like airbrushed meat, her seemingly heartless mother tapping away on her smartphone, ignoring Twitter and “focusing just on the mainstream”. Later (during a grab-your-hankie moment) Driver tries to explain what it was like to be a young single Brixton girl in public housing with a black baby. She’s the closest thing the movie has to a traditional villain, but by the end (and I don’t think this is much of a spoiler) we recognize that what she did, she did out of love.
Beyond the Lights is somewhat ridiculously anglophilic. “Welcome home, luv!” the kinder, gentler UK paparazzi call to her in her noticeably less sexed-up attire for a finale concert on her terms. To the detriment of the film, we learn that Noni’s idol is Nina Simone, which makes for some unfortunate comparisons. (Forget that no one can ever fill Simone’s shoes, but the style of music the kids listen to today just does not measure up harumph harumph harumph.) But her big numbers still come from the heart and it’s damn near impossible not to cheer, especially with Kaz beaming with pride from the side of the stage.
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