beyond the lights

 courtesy BET / Relativity Media

this i love. so much i've seen it twice. 

perhaps it's a bit corny, but it's one of those corny romances that works. it's a good story; full of charm, redemption, love, and transformation. the kind of chocolate dreams are made of. 

written and directed by gina prince-bythewood (love & basketball), beyond the lights tells the story of noni (gugu mbatha-raw), a gifted mixed-race black girl from brixton. her mother is white (played awesomely by minnie driver) and her black father is out of the picture. their relationship is a sort of updated gypsy rose lee and mama rose. 

' mama, i'm gonna be a star!' 'i call the shots now, mama!' 

while noni is a little girl doing talent shows, macy jean realizes noni is their ticket to the big time. it is inconsequential what noni herself may want to create with her artistry. 

fast forward 15 years and noni is teamed up as the hyper-sexualized sidekick to a white rapper named kid culprit. together, they have a string of number 1 hits and ridiculous videos. noni is glammed up in a lavender weave, long nails, and gilded pop gear. 

after the billboard awards she snaps and tries to take a leap off the balcony of her hotel. she's saved by kaz (nate parker), the cop hired as her security detail. (the fact that noni and her mom live in a glass house in LA, it didn't make much sense why they were staying in a hotel in LA?) 

  ultimately, beyond the lights is a fantasy, a fairy tale true love story. kaz is a caring, down to earth cat who is unaffected by the mania and chaos of noni's world. through his support and kindness, noni begins to transform and make changes, but she doesn't give up her music or ambitions for him. in one scene she clips the talons and cuts off the lavender weave in favor of her natural hair. 

it was refreshing to see a film narrative about a black woman and man falling in love and supporting one another as a unit. price-bythewood had to jump through mad hoops to get this film made with two black leads. it is also fantastic see a mainstream film about a black woman's transformation to her authentic self. how many recent hollywood films are released such as that? one for zero. 

brilliant. 

free the nipple

i enjoy indie, under the radar films. i never know what gem of brilliance and good art i may find (knowing that i love the dark and dreary, a friend in malmo, sweden hipped me to 'let the right one in' after she'd read the book).

unfortunately, free the nipple is not one of them gems. it rips off everything from sophia coppola's production and art design, music soundtrack style, to the guerilla girls and pussy riot's pink robber masks. there is brilliant dialogue such as, 'we didn't get the permits. i let everyone down.' 

free the nipple is a film where you don't know what the fuck is going on or what the fuck just happened. the main protagonist is with (yes, with). she's a journalist looking for an amazing story. she happens across liv and her crew of boobs-out,cape wearing protesters. they have no name or a collective purpose other than if it's legal for men to go about shirtless, why can't chicks?

then with takes over. she becomes their primary investor, manager, and coach behind the whole movement. she names them girllrillas or some shit, she magically gets a $5k check and they move from working from liv's basement squat (which looks more like a loft than any squat i've ever seen) to an abandoned indoor pool. 

there's very little character development in this story; spaces and circumstances suddenly change. there's lots of magic in this movie. such as when liv gets arrested trying to save with and is held on a
$ 25k bond. the girls throw a fundraiser at a dive bar, but they come up $ 24,500.00 short! then with's friend, jim black, a cigar smoking public relations father figure, magically writes her a blank check. (for a feminist film about women being self-sufficient and defiant, it sucked that a daddy-figure eventually comes to the rescue anyway). there's no growth here.

i wasn't sure if it was going for comedy, melodrama or a weird mash of docu-dramedy. in a word, it's a mess. there are some nicely framed shots, cool art, good music, and a hilarious cameo by jeane garafalo (who i think was doing an impersonation of the performance artist marina abramovic).  otherwise this film isn't much more than a hipster trip without substance.

this is lina esco's first feature film. how she bankrolled this project is baffling, but she has some very rich friends. maybe someone thought she's the next lena dunham; all that hip, edgy, young girl power type-shit. but dunham is hands down a much more talented writer and director.  i read esco's profile which listed her accomplishments such as modeling in france and then moving to england to work in theater (i thought, coat check or concessions?). she also does stuff to help dolphins.

she had a role on the series 'cane' if you remember that at all. it was a prime time soap in the vein of dallas about a rich cuban-american family in miami. there was lots of rum, scando, and people strolling around the family estate in white linen clothes. it was cancelled after one season.

perhaps that gig gave lina the seed money to save flipper.

i don't recommend this film at all, but definitely root for beyond the lights!