Beats is a 2019 drama about a talented young man with a troubled past who meets a music manager with a plan to make him a star.
Most of us feel something deeply personal in the music we listen to, at least the stuff we turn up in private, be it an operatic aria or a low-fi hip hop beat. Music drives us, motivates us, consoles us, and sometimes defines us. As such, it has also been fodder for movies, driving stories of those taken by this passion, from country music legends to rap star wannabes and more. This is where director Chris Robinson sets his latest feature Beats, an inspiring little tale of tragedy and redemption built around the power of music.
In Chicago, August Monroe (Khalil Everage) is a high schooler running rough with his friends, living with his hardworking mother (Uzo Aduba) and older sister Kari (Megan Sousa). He’s especially close with Kari, who looks after him as best she can. However, when he gets himself in trouble and trouble comes looking to push back, Kari ends up dead and August slips into a deep depression, skipping school for months, hiding in his bedroom as his mother coddles him, fearing for his safety. Meanwhile, at his school, security officer and former music producer Romelo Reese (Anthony Anderson) tracks the boy down, only to discover the kid has real musical talent, thinking he might be his ticket to getting back into the game.
The setup for Beats is genuinely traumatic, the short buildup to Kari’s end a convincing and disturbing start that packs a hard punch, especially because it feels unexpected. However, things slow down considerably from there, much of the film falling into well worn ruts of the rise to fame stories we’ve seen before, though there is a legitimate lack of momentum in long stretches that keep this slightly off balance, or at least not always believable.
Still, there is a lot to like about August and his fight for control. The movie may dust over the paralyzing effects of such personal trauma in the name of drama but there’s no getting around how well some it comes together in the relationships he has with the two people who care about him most, his mother and Romelo, even as they disagree about what’s best for him. It’s these moments that hit their stride right along with a few powerful sequences that force August to truly confront the demons holding him back.
Music has its place in all this but it’s not as prominent as it might seem, the beats August plays a connection to his past that serve as both a prison and an escape. There’s a transparent message standing on deck in Beats, one we’ve heard sung before, but at least we get close to the characters in ways many in the genre don’t. August lives in a neighborhood where death is all too common and he too close to it, though Robinson is careful not to make this one more black man has a chance to leave it all behind story, instead keeping it less about the path out than finding hope within. It doesn’t always strike with the emotional force it ought to, but it’s well acted and deeply sincere. Recommended.