FilmInk
…goes beyond the social realism so prevalent in British film, to capture the immediacy and euphoria of 1990s rave culture.
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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.
2019Rating: R16, Violence, offensive language & drug use101 minsUK
DramaMusic
- Director:
- Brian Welsh ('The Rack Pack', 'In Our Name')
- Writer:
- Kieran HurleyBrian Welsh
- Cast:
- Cristian OrtegaLorn MacdonaldLaura FraserAmy MansonKevin MainsGemma McElhinneyRachel Jackson
Beats (UK) / Reviews
Sydney Morning Herald
Welsh has delivered a compelling snapshot of an era and captured a moment in life when friendship is at its most sustaining.
Full reviewStuff
Beats is a simple structure, loaded with detail, dialogue and situations that only a writer who lived it could have conjured up.
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New Zealand Herald
Beats 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.
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The Times
The script, adapted by Welsh and Kieran Hurley from Hurley's play, is especially good on the preciousness and subjectivity of cultural experience.
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Time Out
It's miraculously authentic - the pill-popping centrepiece is the heavenly answer to the LSD hell of Gaspar Noé's 'Climax'.
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Screen Daily
Beats brilliantly captures the nervy, joyful terror of turning up at a derelict warehouse equipped with a soundsystem and woefully inadequate toilet facilities.
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Variety
Beats proceeds to give a dying scene its euphoric due, in a dazzling digression from stage-based form.
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The Guardian
Compared with Mia Hansen-Løve’s resonant French house drama Eden, or Michael Winterbottom’s kaleidoscopic 24 Hour Party People, these beats sound tinny.
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Hollywood Reporter
An infectiously enjoyable slice of knockabout nostalgia that wears its Trainspotting heritage proudly on its rough-edged tartan sleeve.
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Empire Magazine
Beats is a truly heartfelt rites-of-passage tale — an immersive, intoxicating portrayal of the rave scene at its peak.
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