“Beyond the Lights” features one of the more interesting dialogues about the suffocating pressures of fame and the stifling sexualization of our culture. Gugu Mbatha-Raw’s Noni Jean, a digital-age pop star with all the qualities of a true songbird, gets fed up with both and threatens to throw it all away by jumping off a balcony. Thankfully, Nate Parker’s officer Kaz is there to keep her from making the leap.
What follows in writer/director Gina Prince-Bythewood’s film is partially a demonstration of what happens to women who rebel against the implicit contract that they must become objects of sexual desire first and bearers of talent second. (Shocker: people, men especially, HATE it.) But to keep Noni from another complete relapse, she needs some source of comfort; she finds that in Kaz.
A romantic subplot is hardly objectionable, yet it seems odd when it ultimately becomes the main storyline in a film that otherwise concerns itself with female empowerment. Prince-Blythewood directs the scenes between Noni and Kaz with all the subtlety of a Hallmark movie. They are drawn-out, sappy, and far too numerous.
The discussion “Beyond the Lights” wants to start is worth having. But whether you want to endure some of the standard-issue syrupy adoration to join in is a decision you have to make for yourself. B-/ 
Marshall and the Movies 
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