Delayed Reaction: Beyond the Lights

The Pitch: Remember the Britney Spears song "Lucky"? Ok, take that and make her black.

This is a 2014 star vehicle for Gugu Mbatha-Raw, about how hard it is to be a pop star. That's a tough sell, because we've been conditioned to believe that the rich and famous live easy lives. All that's comparative though, and happiness is something that eludes people in every tax bracket. This film does a great job presenting Mbatha-Raw's side of the story. She's famous but she's also micro-managed. She has a very specific image that she's trying to maintain (sexy but accessible, glamorous but relatable). It's all too much. The scene with her removing her hair extensions and eyebrows, etc. does a great job showing just how much of a facade her public face is.

I decided to watch this because Mbatha-Raw's episode of Easy got me curious to look her up again. I've known about her for a while, but she's somehow still looking for that breakthrough role. She really should be a star by now. It was pure coincidence that earlier the same day I watched The Birth of a Nation. That day became an unexpected crash course in the range of Nate Parker, who is fine in this. Mbatha-Raw is who really shines, selling the audience on a character who can potentially come off as insufferably privileged and/or entitled. I bought into her emotional journey far more than I expected. The second most impressive character has to be Minnie Driver as her over-bearing mother. "Parent living vicariously through the success of the child" is virtually a trope by now. She manages to add some extra shading to it, switching between mother and manager at unexpected times. It isn't a deeply complex story, but the performances make it sing.

Verdict (?): Weakly Recommend