Last night I had the pleasure of attending the media screening of Gina Prince-Bythewood’s new movie Beyond the Lights starring the absolutely gorgeous and talented GuGu Mbatha-Raw and the absolutely GORGEOUS and talented Nate Parker. Yes I am a fan. I went into it with the assumption that it was not going to be that great and I had visions of a 2014 “The Bodyguard” remake in my head. It was far from it. This is a love story with a much deeper and profound message that honestly hit very close to home for me.
Noni, played by Gugu Mbatha-Raw is a young singer with the Momager from hell (played very well by Minnie Driver)….seriously she makes Kris Jenner seem normal. She is an amazing songstress but is certainly objectified in the music industry by having to wear extremely sexy clothes as well as dancing provocatively. She owns the stage but you can tell that she is playing a role. Noni is basically a cross between Beyonce and Rihanna. As the movie goes on you can see that Noni has some serious demons that she needs to address and with the help of Kazaam, played by Nate Parker she attempts to release them.
The first 20 minutes of the movie I felt were a bit corny and I made many sarcastic comments but the storyline thickened and I fell in love with it. I also fell in deep attraction for Nate Parker. If anything he is enough to stare at without paying any attention to the film itself.
I laughed extremely hard. I cried pretty hard. I side eyed decently hard a couple of times and I left feeling renewed and almost reborn. Most will not leave the movie that way but with all that is going on in my life, this touched me deeply. So deeply that I spent all night in intense reflection of myself, my choices and what I want my journey to be. There is no doubt, I will go see Beyond the Lights again and kudos to all involved in the making of this movie!
“Truth is the only safe ground to stand on.”
