Beyond the Lights
Relativity Media | Release Date: November 14, 2014 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
73
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 25 Critic Reviews
Positive:
21
Mixed:
4
Negative:
0
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
100
RogerEbert.comOdie HendersonNov 14, 2014
Beyond the Lights makes unapologetically damning statements about the music industry’s treatment of women, yet it never feels preachy. It strikes a risky, though successful balancing act between being immensely entertaining as a musical feature and making dramatic, important statements about depression, self-worth and female empowerment. Read full review
90
New York Magazine (Vulture)Bilge EbiriNov 14, 2014
Beyond the Lights is a deft, gorgeous movie. For all its honesty, it’s never slow, and for all its criticism of the music industry, it’s never finger-wagging. Read full review
90
The New York TimesA.O. ScottNov 13, 2014
Beyond the Lights may be a fantasy — movies about love, like songs about love, tend to fall into that category — but it is an uncommonly smart and honest fantasy. Read full review
89
Austin ChronicleWilliam GossNov 19, 2014
The relative restraint of Beyond the Lights is practically a godsend, presenting audiences with a fairy tale grounded in something resembling reality and fractured by external circumstance as much as internal doubts. Read full review
83
The A.V. ClubKeith UhlichNov 12, 2014
This is feel-good populist entertainment at heart. Read full review
83
Entertainment WeeklyLeah GreenblattNov 7, 2014
Both Mbatha-Raw and Parker are appealing, expressive actors, and writer-director Gina Prince-Bythewood (Love & Basketball) lets them breathe, filling in the boilerplate bones of the story with smartly nuanced commentary. Read full review
83
HitfixGregory EllwoodSep 10, 2014
Mbatha-Raw is shockingly good in creating both the "Noni" public persona and the real Noni. Read full review
80
New York Daily NewsElizabeth WeitzmanNov 13, 2014
This unusually intelligent crowd-pleaser is welcome proof that quality filmmaking needn’t be limited by subject, audience or budget. Read full review
80
The DissolveGenevieve KoskiNov 13, 2014
Melodrama is defined by exaggerated characters and events, as well as overt appeals to emotion, and Beyond The Lights fits that mold ably and comfortably. But beneath the shiny surface of music-video imagery and true-loveisms lie some provocative ideas and deep truths about how people relate on a private level vs. a public one. Read full review
80
Village VoiceStephanie ZacharekNov 11, 2014
A movie isn’t a cliché when it can sing like this. Read full review
75
Rolling StonePeter TraversNov 13, 2014
There's enough plot here to sink a soap opera, but the actors prevail. Parker is a no-bull charmer. Driver leaves bite marks on her juicy role. And Mbatha-Raw, so good this year in "Belle", is dynamite. Read full review
75
USA TodayClaudia PuigNov 13, 2014
With its focus on integrity, creativity and identity, Beyond the Lights is a rare intelligent romantic drama. Read full review
75
St. Louis Post-DispatchKevin C. JohnsonNov 13, 2014
Mbatha-Raw continues to be a true revelation in a role that could be not be any more different from her star turn in “Belle” this year. Read full review
75
San Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalleNov 13, 2014
As a work of art, the movie is merely on the bright side of OK. But as a vehicle for an emerging star, as a platform to show one actress in a variety of modes and moods, within a sympathetic and glamorous context, it couldn’t be better. Read full review
75
Washington PostAnn HornadayNov 13, 2014
The fact that Beyond the Lights is so effective at both celebrating and critiquing extravagance and artifice can be credited to Prince-Bythewood’s shrewd understanding of the highly pitched cinematic vernacular she’s working with. Even more crucially, when it came time to cast the transformational figure at her fable’s center, she found the real thing. Read full review
70
SlateDana StevensDec 15, 2014
Even when Prince-Bythewood (Love and Basketball) tries to pack too much around the edges (including critiques of record-industry sexism and the mechanisms of black political fundraising), the romance at the movie’s center remains credible and vibrant. Read full review
70
Los Angeles TimesMartin TsaiNov 13, 2014
Mbatha-Raw looks, sounds and moves like an A-lister. If "Belle" put the actress on Hollywood's radar, Beyond the Lights heralds her superstardom. Read full review
70
The Hollywood ReporterDavid RooneySep 11, 2014
Gina Prince-Bythewood’s entertaining music-biz melodrama is no less satisfying for the familiarity of its soapy trajectory. Read full review
70
VarietyGeoff BerkshireSep 10, 2014
Beyond the Lights is a strange beast, a music-industry romance that alternates freely between wisdom and mawkishness, caustic entertainment-biz critique and naive wish fulfillment, heartfelt flourishes and soap-opera shenanigans. Read full review
63
McClatchy-Tribune News ServiceRoger MooreNov 12, 2014
Beyond the Lights is another pain-behind-the-music romance. But it’s so well written, cast and played that we lose ourselves in the comfort food familiarity of it all. Read full review
63
Slant MagazineChris CabinNov 10, 2014
By rooting Noni's self-image issues in a controlling mother, the script provides the film with a tame, melodramatic structure that dulls the thorny matters of identity and expression at its center. Read full review
60
Arizona RepublicBill GoodykoontzNov 13, 2014
The film soldiers on through a couple of possible endings, and if its real destination is never truly in doubt, Mbatha-Raw makes the trip interesting. Read full review
50
Boston GlobeTom RussoNov 13, 2014
Unfortunately, as the story builds toward tenderness, it’s undercut with slathering tongues and bare-chested stud-muffin shots. Read full review
50
New York PostKyle SmithNov 12, 2014
The teary-eyed sincerity of the music-industry drama Beyond the Lights is at times too much, but despite its cliche elements, the film at least has the feel of a passion project. Read full review
42
Portland OregonianStephen WhittyNov 14, 2014
The people are pretty, the music scenes are well-staged (they're supposed to be crude and corny, right?) and we've needed a silly romance for a while now. But for all its hugs and kisses, the film refuses to embrace itself. Read full review
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