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Blu-ray Review Beyond the Lights Blu-ray Review (1 Viewer)

Matt Hough

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Beyond the Lights Blu-ray Review

The producers and writer-director Gina Prince-Bythewood seem to be under the impression that their film Beyond the Lights offers some kind of revelatory inside look at the music industry in telling its romantic tale of a music superstar who comes to grips with her life’s priorities. But truly, the movie is a mass of clichés from beginning to end, complete with a pushy stage mother, a successful but unhappily coddled star who is so removed from the real world that she’s unaware what’s important in life, and the average Joe who brings her back down to earth. A wily viewer with even minimal experience with this kind of show biz backstage romance knows where this movie is going a quarter hour into it, and watching it plod its way through all the expected events in rather lockstep fashion is rather disheartening.



Studio: Fox

Distributed By: N/A

Video Resolution and Encode: 1080P/AVC

Aspect Ratio: 1.78:1

Audio: English 5.1 DTS-HDMA

Subtitles: English SDH, Spanish

Rating: Not Rated, PG-13

Run Time: 1 Hr. 56 Min.

Package Includes: Blu-ray, UltraViolet

keep case in a slipcover

Disc Type: BD50 (dual layer)

Region: A

Release Date: 02/24/2015

MSRP: $39.99




The Production Rating: 2.5/5

Superstar singer Noni (Gugu Mbatha-Raw) is winning awards and has screaming fans everywhere she goes, but she’s so unhappy that she attempts suicide the night after she wins the top Billboard Music Award. She’s prevented from diving over a fifth floor balcony railing by her security guard Kaz Nichol (Nate Parker) and begins to believe that his down-to-earth way of living is more appealing than the fantasy world of luxury and excess to which she and her determined stage mother (Minnie Driver) have become accustomed. Kaz has dreams of a political career and hopes to run for a soon-to-be vacant seat on Los Angeles City Council, but his police captain father (Danny Glover) knows that associating with the wild, unpredictable lifestyle of a rock superstar is no way to get elected, and he cautions his son adamantly about continuing his association with Noni. But he and the singer have fallen in love and though they are both being pulled apart by forces determined to keep their secure status quo intact, the two manage to bounce back from continual disappointments to find time to be together.

The script by director Gina Prince-Bythewood hits all the expected beats concerning both show biz and fractured romance: from the overly sexualized music videos and live performances that Noni begins gradually to resist being a part of to the break-ups and make-ups between the two leading players as they work their way uneasily toward making her a performer she herself can respect (which involves reinventing her look and her approach to music: much too simplistically handled in the movie for believability) while Kaz’s political ambitions seem to take a backseat in the final analysis, something that makes the ludicrous fairy tale ending sweet and soulful but is also completely antiseptic. Because we aren’t offered a backstory on how Noni got to the desperate place we find her on her night of awards triumph, we must take it for granted that her mother’s unending pushiness and ambition for her daughter has destroyed her soul over time (though watching her rise to stardom might have been interesting), but it would have been nice to have gotten some discussion about that problem between the two of them. Kaz continually insists to anyone who’ll listen: mother, record producer and executives that Noni needs help, but she only mentions at the film’s climax that she’s getting help without any specifics. Gina Prince-Bythewood takes her camera into some interesting places, sometimes setting it at a distance and almost eavesdropping on Noni and Kaz at their most vulnerable moments. Kaz’s first airplane flight and their idyllic sojourn to Mexico to escape the paparazzi are nicely directed sequences that humanize the leading characters, but the clichés in the characters and relationships far outweigh moments of stylish élan that pop up here and there.

Gugu Mbatha-Raw who made such a positive impression in Belle repeats that impressive acting technique here even though she’s dealing with the melodramatic, formulaic writing that she must overcome through sheer force of will. She does her own singing, too, impressing in the faux-hits that have been written for the movie as well as with the lovely “Blackbird” in an impressive a capella rendition. Nate Parker has the looks and physique to be an effective leading man, but the role has been given far fewer showy moments, and he often fades into the background in scenes with her even though they certainly have chemistry together. Minnie Driver is unquestionably dynamic in the stereotypical stage mother guise, and Danny Glover as Kaz’s equally domineering parental unit makes a lesser impression in general. As the rap star involved in a label-induced romance with Noni, Richard Colson Baker seems the real deal: a sleazy egomaniacal celebrity whose hubris can’t tolerate a public rejection. Darryl Stephens as a bullying record executive is given only a one dimensional character to perform. Though she doesn’t resemble star Gugu Mbatha-Raw in the least, India Jean-Jacques as the 10-year old Noni shows us a fresh-faced youngster dominated by her barracuda of a mother who won’t accept anything but a champion.



Video Rating: 4.5/5  3D Rating: NA

The film has been framed for home video at 1.78:1 and is presented in 1080p using the AVC codec. Sharpness is very good to excellent throughout, and color has been realistically presented in terms of tone and saturation levels with believable skin hues. Black levels are good rather than great, but contrast has been consistently maintained. The movie has been divided into 24 chapters.



Audio Rating: 4.5/5

The DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 sound mix uses the music-heavy soundtrack to provide the film with its most obvious surround presence. The background score by Mark Isham and songs by a variety of artists (including the new Noni songs used in the film by Terius “The-Dream” Nash) do offer some sweeping envelopment throughout the movie. Sound effects might have been a bit more inclusive of the rear channels, but they’re more than adequate, and the dialogue is quite easy to understand and has been placed in the center channel.



Special Features Rating: 3.5/5

Audio Commentary: writer-director Gina Prince-Bythewood, director of photography Tami Reiker, and film editor Terilyn Shropshire together contribute the commentary for the director's cut. Prince-Bythewood does by far the most talking as she explains highlights of the production and the efforts it took to get it made to reflect her own vision of the story.

Director’s Cut (HD): available from the main menu; this was the version viewed for the purposes of this review. The language is a bit rawer and views of sex and skin is a bit more graphic than in the PG-13 theatrical cut.

Deleted Scenes (6:05, HD): five scenes may be viewed separately or in montage and with optional commentary by the aforementioned three ladies.

Escape to Mexico 2.0 (1:53, HD): the alternative Mexican montage featuring the song “I’m Gonna Love You My Way.”

Changing the Conversation (4:58, HD): stars Gugu Mbatha-Raw, Nate Parker, Minnie Driver, and Colson Baker as well as writer-director Gina Prince-Bythewood and producers Reggie Rock Bythewood and Stephanie Allain offer sound bites about making the film and its roots in the rock music scene.

Gary Theard: Boom Man (4:28, HD): a tribute to the late boom mike master Gary Theard whose last film this was. Sound mixer Willie D. Burton and director Gina Prince-Bythewood pay the tribute.

“Masterpiece” Music Video (3:24, HD): performed by Gugu Mbatha-Raw and Colson Baker.

Theatrical Trailer (1:46, HD)

Promo Trailers (HD): Black and White, The Best of Me, Hector and the Search for Happiness, Belle.

Ultraviolet: code sheet enclosed in the case



Overall Rating: 3/5

Awash in clichés and predictable events from start to finish, Beyond the Lights still might serve as a pleasant romantic evening rental for viewers who don't mind the mediocrity. Certainly, the video and audio quality leave very little to be desired.


Reviewed By: Matt Hough


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Ldizzle

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I appreciate this review as I was looking for some opinions regarding the a/v quality of this disc.

4.5 is music to my ears (no pun intended).
 

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