Beats (2019)

It would be easy and far too reductive to simply compare Beats to Human Traffic, another chemical fuelled bildungsroman set to a throbbing house soundtrack, but it really is far more than that.

As is my wont, I’ll just get my one or two gripes out-of-the-way early on. First, there’s a montage near the end that goes on for about ten minutes too long. Secondly, Beats is unfortunately hampered by a somewhat weak opening act. You can’t help but feel as though production was a bit rushed and, as a result, the actors simply didn’t have the chance to really get in their respective characters skin – or have a decent early rehearsal as the dialogue comes off just a little bit wooden.

But as soon as we’re past this one clumsy hurdle, oh my holy hell does the film grab and not let go. Kieran Hurley (whose play the film is based on) has structured Beats in such a masterful way. From the get go we’re led to believe that we’re in for a harshly political film. Beats certainly is political in parts, but it’s actually something far simpler and far more beautiful than that.

The story Hurley chooses to tell is one that all of us have experienced or will experience at some point in our lives. The realisation that nothing, including friendship, is permanent and just how important it is that we come to terms with this unfortunate fact of life so that we can let ourselves grow as people.

The setting, of course, makes perfect sense in this context. The rave scene was all but dead by 1994 and throughout the narrative we encounter the unfortunate souls who simply can’t accept that the party is over, nor can they accept that it never was the revolution they believed it to be.

The story unfolds in black and white a stylistic choice that again hammers home the fact that we’re witnessing the dying breath of a cultural movement. The whole film plays out as one steady panic attack, akin to the rolls of anxiety leading up to the blissful ecstasy found in your first foray into certain chemicals – so my friends tell me.

Also, the music. By god the music. You can tell that the soundtrack to Beats was a true labour of love – not to say that isn’t the case with the entire film. Throughout the film you’re treated to classic after classic – The Killing Joke being a highlight for yours truly – and events are wrapped up nicely, and aptly, with a track by Glasgow’s own Hudson Mohawke – a fitting conclusion.

Finally, I’d be remiss if I failed to mention the two leads of Beats. Cristian Ortega (Johnno) and Lorn MacDonald (Spanner) are each stars in the making, but it’s MacDonald who steals every single scene the moment he enters frame. Somehow he manages to be both the film’s comic relief and its emotional core as he peels back layer after layer of a sensitive young man who was simply handed a rotten hand in life.

Despite a rocky start, Beats manages to evolve into something much greater than just another ‘party movie’, but still has a killer soundtrack to boot, and might possibly have introduced Scotland to a few future stars.

Director: Brian Welsh
Writers: Kieran Hurley (based on a play by), Kieran Hurley (co-writer)
Stars: Martin Donaghy, Brian Ferguson, Ryan Fletcher