The Beat

This movie is well worth watching. In fact, it is worth watching more than once. It is layered and thought provoking, on top of being downright entertaining. It makes you think about the choices you make in life.

Even though I am not in any way a hip-hop fan, I found the music to be great! What a talent. I especially liked the dance sequence at the bus stop.

The movie reminded me, in some ways, of Dancer in the Dark. The way that a musical is combined with a more serious theme and that it all works is amazing to me. I used to think of musicals as fluff like Mary Poppins or Cats, but no more.

I will definitely watch this movie more than once. I would love to have the printed lyrics to the songs, but since I don't, I guess I will just watch and listen again and enjoy it every time!

-This movie is definitely worth watching-

From my movie watching experience I've gathered that it's a real challenge to make a quality, fictional portrayal of an up and coming rapper, or for that matter any film that centers around the hip-hop culture. First of all, this is a solid movie regardless of its subject matter. It's thoroughly entertaining, well acted, moving, humorous at times and all that good stuff. I would not go so far as to call this a great film, but it is a very good first effort from a director that you'll certainly hear about again (Brandon Sonnier). The music aspect is certainly just one facet of this movie, which is ultimately a pretty intense drama.

As a hip-hop film, The Beat also succeeds. The main character does his own rhyming; well enough that it was difficult to tell whether he is an actor/rapper or a rapper/actor, which I guess is a good thing. If you like rap, the music in the film is good, not amazing, but definitely worthy of being listened to. If you don't like rap, I wouldn't expect to love the soundtrack, but I do think the music is palatable for almost all audiences. The portrayal of the hip-hop scene/culture is not over the top and all the characters are believable personalities. There are some rap stars in the film too, which adds a bit of attraction if you listen to hip-hop.

Essentially, this is not another movie with Eminem or 50 Cent deciding to become movie stars. It's... better than that.

Rahman Jamaal, the lead in this film blows my mind! He spits raps from freestyles to classical music emanating from a bus stop and makes Mr. Marshall Mathers look like a school boy. This is 8-mile with an independent spirit and very entertaining.

This is not your normal bottom barrel indie film - it has high production value and looks and sounds fantastic.

I hope the Director Brandon Sonnier has something else in the works because he certainly has talent. From what I've read he was the youngest director at 19 to ever have a film in the Sundance Film Festival.

Definitely rent or buy this film.