A hip-hop tale of a 17 y.o. musical wunderkind who turns to his keyboard and mixer after the traumatic murder of his sister on the hard-knock streets of Chicago. The plot follows well-worn beats (ahem) in the troubled-kid-genius subgenre offering very little in the way of narrative freshness, but there's an urgency to the drama that propels the film along nicely nevertheless. Khalil Everage is wooden and awkward in the key role of August, whilst Anthony Anderson is hard to like as the down-on-his-luck mentor seeking a return to former musical-manager glory. Importantly though, the soundtrack is on point. The central rap created for the film is electric, with Seandrea 'Dreezy' Sledge slinging slick vocals on top of August's unique tunes in a breakthrough block concert - the movie's standout scene. There are some toe-tapping moments and an energetic tempo, but a strict adherence to convention and some odd central performances keeps Beats from landing hard.
Review of Beats
