Beyond the Lights

Gugu Mbatha-Raw is spectacular throughout, both dolled-up in outrageous LA costumes or in her eventual sensible British attire. Nate Parker is equally terrific.

...Gugu Mbatha-Raw, who does her own singing andembodies Noni so fiercely that she sears the screen. This is a star-making performance...

...Parker and Mbatha-Raw handle the more chintzy passages of the script's dialogue well, and end up bringing out natural appeal through their own distinct deliveries and physicality.

...a fairy tale grounded in something resembling reality and fractured by external circumstance as much as internal doubts.

The fraught relationship between mother and daughter turns increasingly vivid in Beyond the Lights.