
Beats (UK)
Set in the Scottish summer of '94, two soon-to-depart mates spend one last night together at an illegal rave in this electronic music-driven crowd-pleaser.
- Director:
- Brian Welsh ('The Rack Pack', 'In Our Name')
- Writer:
- Kieran HurleyBrian Welsh
- Cast:
- Cristian OrtegaLorn MacdonaldLaura FraserAmy MansonKevin MainsGemma McElhinneyRachel Jackson


Reviews & comments

FilmInk
press…goes beyond the social realism so prevalent in British film, to capture the immediacy and euphoria of 1990s rave culture.

Sydney Morning Herald
pressWelsh has delivered a compelling snapshot of an era and captured a moment in life when friendship is at its most sustaining.

Stuff
pressBeats is a simple structure, loaded with detail, dialogue and situations that only a writer who lived it could have conjured up.

New Zealand Herald
pressBeats doesn't have anything more to say than previous films about dance culture, but with a visual style of its own and excellent music choices, it's a fitting tribute to an era etched in the memory of anyone old enough to have attended.

The Times
pressThe script, adapted by Welsh and Kieran Hurley from Hurley's play, is especially good on the preciousness and subjectivity of cultural experience.

Time Out
pressIt's miraculously authentic - the pill-popping centrepiece is the heavenly answer to the LSD hell of Gaspar Noé's 'Climax'.

Screen Daily
pressBeats brilliantly captures the nervy, joyful terror of turning up at a derelict warehouse equipped with a soundsystem and woefully inadequate toilet facilities.

Variety
pressBeats proceeds to give a dying scene its euphoric due, in a dazzling digression from stage-based form.

The Guardian
pressCompared with Mia Hansen-Løve’s resonant French house drama Eden, or Michael Winterbottom’s kaleidoscopic 24 Hour Party People, these beats sound tinny.

Hollywood Reporter
pressAn infectiously enjoyable slice of knockabout nostalgia that wears its Trainspotting heritage proudly on its rough-edged tartan sleeve.

Empire Magazine
pressBeats is a truly heartfelt rites-of-passage tale — an immersive, intoxicating portrayal of the rave scene at its peak.

FilmInk
press…goes beyond the social realism so prevalent in British film, to capture the immediacy and euphoria of 1990s rave culture.

Sydney Morning Herald
pressWelsh has delivered a compelling snapshot of an era and captured a moment in life when friendship is at its most sustaining.

Stuff
pressBeats is a simple structure, loaded with detail, dialogue and situations that only a writer who lived it could have conjured up.

New Zealand Herald
pressBeats doesn't have anything more to say than previous films about dance culture, but with a visual style of its own and excellent music choices, it's a fitting tribute to an era etched in the memory of anyone old enough to have attended.

The Times
pressThe script, adapted by Welsh and Kieran Hurley from Hurley's play, is especially good on the preciousness and subjectivity of cultural experience.

Time Out
pressIt's miraculously authentic - the pill-popping centrepiece is the heavenly answer to the LSD hell of Gaspar Noé's 'Climax'.

Screen Daily
pressBeats brilliantly captures the nervy, joyful terror of turning up at a derelict warehouse equipped with a soundsystem and woefully inadequate toilet facilities.

Variety
pressBeats proceeds to give a dying scene its euphoric due, in a dazzling digression from stage-based form.

The Guardian
pressCompared with Mia Hansen-Løve’s resonant French house drama Eden, or Michael Winterbottom’s kaleidoscopic 24 Hour Party People, these beats sound tinny.

Hollywood Reporter
pressAn infectiously enjoyable slice of knockabout nostalgia that wears its Trainspotting heritage proudly on its rough-edged tartan sleeve.

Empire Magazine
pressBeats is a truly heartfelt rites-of-passage tale — an immersive, intoxicating portrayal of the rave scene at its peak.
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