I wasn't sure what to expect but, this was a really great movie. I've never heard of it before. I was searching for movies to watch that I haven't seen and came across this. I'm glad I decided to watch as I did enjoy it. The storyline was good and kept me intrigued to watch the entire movie. Definitely a must see.

"It seems as though Jessie J has been thrust into the spotlight without any warning," Matthew Perpetua writes in his crushing Pitchfork review of Jessie J's 2011 album Who You Are. "There's an uncomfortable inevitability about her sudden stardom." These days, new pop stars seem to enter the musical landscape out of nowhere, some of them a breath of fresh air (Lorde, Charli XCX) and some of them almost uncomfortably manufactured (Rita Ora, and ahem, Jessie J). If you land a verse on some nameless rapper's hit or Dr. Luke likes your stuff, you may as well say goodbye to humanity and welcome the burgeoning effects of becoming a pop culture product.Noni (Gugu Mbatha-Raw), unfortunately, falls under the manufactured category. She's an echo of Rihanna's easily identifiable persona, but without the personality and the individuality to match. Regardless, her album is about to drop, and industry experts are saying that first-week sales will set records. But all the press, all the attention, isn't what she wants. She's sick and tired of her life even though it has hardly even begun. In just the first few minutes of Beyond the Lights, we find her sitting on a top-story balcony ledge, contemplating whether she should jump or not.When we first meet her, she is just a little girl, awkward and entering in a local singing competition. All the other girls look like Dance Moms knockoffs, crappily dancing to crappy songs in crappy costumes. But Noni, in her outdated glasses and elementary school clothes, sings Nina Simone's "Blackbird" a cappella. We get chills, but she finds herself in the shoes of the runner-up. She turns to her mother (Minnie Driver), sitting in the audience: anger is evident in her eyes.Jump about 16 years into the future, she's the cover model for Complex and other assorted music magazines. As far as we know, Noni's mother has been pushing her to be the next Whitney while Noni passively goes along with it, secretly desiring to be a sort of Erykah for the next generation. The result should be some Mommie Dearest and Gypsy combination, but strange things have happened to Beyond the Lights. For its been-there-done-that storyline, it is lucky enough to have a talented director at its front and a well-versed screenplay to make its melancholy real. There are so many things it should be, things you expect to be, one of them being cheesy, for starters. But Beyond the Lights genuinely moved me. It is not a satire of the music industry but a character study of a young woman who has never been able to find herself because she's been told what to say and think for so long.The film eventually goes into The Bodyguard territory (Noni falls for her soft-spoken hotel room guard), but it never loses its footing. For a film surrounded by such a materialistic world, it's surprising emotionally rounded. Mbatha-Raw gives such a terrific performance that we feel as though we really do know Noni, better than her mother and better than the industry. There isn't a second we don't understand the hurt lingering in her eyes. She doesn't know what she wants, but she certainly doesn't want this.There's a scene in which Noni holds a press conference regarding what the paparazzi are calling a suicide attempt. It was a suicide attempt, and she needs help, but with the pressure of her mother and the record company watching her every move, she has to put on a dinky routine that characterizes her as a ditz who sits on ledges when she wears five-inch heels and has a few too many drinks. Mbatha-Raw is so convincing that we begin to wonder if how much we know about our beloved pop stars is actually something they wanted to share. What's hiding behind their Twitter feeds that bear more emojis than thoughts of authenticity?The climax of Beyond the Lights finds Noni shedding her purple weave and hazardously gleaming plastic nails in trade of her natural hair and a clean face. Though the scene is played silently, the emotional power comes with the consuming nature of a tidal wave. It's the first moment in Noni's life that she's had control over her looks. In truth, though, Beyond the Lights is a storm of deeply felt feelings, and we can't help but feel something too. The ending may be too forced for my taste (Noni graces a small stage at a music festival and becomes Corinne Bailey Rae when I would have preferred a more interesting Kelela type), but the film is startlingly good, cruelly overlooked when it shouldn't have been. Read more reviews at petersonreviews.com

I can't say that was ecstatic about seeing BEYOND THE LIGHTS because it just seemed like a 21st century update of THE BODYGUARD, but for what it's worth, despite being narratively uneven and weighed down with clichés, it still is a compelling portrait of what goes on behind the scenes of people who are in the public eye. It stars Gugu Mbatha-Raw as Noni Jean, a cookie-cutter pop star who specializes in the oversexed, over-produced crap that tops the charts these days. One night, after winning an award for her latest single, she attempts suicide but is saved by the officer (Nate Parker) assigned to protect her that evening. From that point, a romantic relationship develops between them as they each figure out how to break out of the mold that other people have tried to keep them in, and begin to think and act for themselves. On paper, that sounds pretty good generally speaking, the film does a good job exploring those themes. The real standout of the cast is Gugu Mbatha-Raw who brings a youthful quality and emotional honesty to a character who, initially, is asked to do a lot of degrading things for the sake of "image." Her mother, played by Minnie Driver, also does a great job as this domineering, controlling personality who micro-manages her daughter's life. One begins to wonder who exactly she wants the career and the fame for: her daughter or herself. It's because of these qualities that she is an extremely unlikeable character, yet there is one stripped down scene in which another, sweeter side is shown and you get a little back story on why she is the way she is. Nate Parker also acquits himself rather nicely, although he and his storyline about being an aspiring politician are mostly sidelined in favor of Noni, although to be fair she is the main character. It would have been nicer for the story to be a little more balanced in that regard, but the juxtaposition of his and Gugu Mbatha-Raw's characters was established well enough. Sadly, all is not well with the film. It succumbs to a lot of the narrative clichés that plague films revolving around music and romance. Fortunately, there is a segment about halfway in which a much-needed break is taken from it all, in which Noni and Kaz get some one-on-one time. There were also a handful of moments that made me laugh unintentionally, such as when Noni takes Kaz on his first flight and they make love to Beyonce's song "Drunk in Love." And then there's Noni's label partner and sort-of boyfriend Kid who was a collection of "white rapper" stereotypes who made me cringe every time he opened his mouth. Overall, the positive elements do outweigh the negative and the film delivers a satisfying story about being true to yourself.

This was a very refreshingly enjoyable movie. The two main characters are unique and have great chemistry. The story steps out of the cliché famous star/bodyguard/police story and actually draws the viewer into a romantic journey that we take with the characters. Being from the romantic genre, I was skeptical at first concerned it was going to be just another romantic movie without any substance but this movie is a credit to the romance genre in that it is truly inspirational and is well worth the watch. The two main actors are fantastic and I would definitely recommend this movie to those who love a good romance movie that has substance and heart. I really enjoyed this movie.