There is not now, nor is there likely ever to be, a shortage of films highlighting the awkward, confusing, and restrictive nature of teenage life. Whether it’s “The Breakfast Club” or “Ladybird”; it’s a well-covered topic spanning generations, locations, and cultures. In many ways, “Beats” is no different in this regard, yet the new Scottish film, executive produced by Slamdance alumni Steven Soderbergh, both incorporates as well as transcends the classic tropes of the genre to tap into a menacing undercurrent that lives just beneath the surface of these stories. The end result is a genuine exploration of class, masculinity, and friendship set in a social and political cauldron many in 2019 might find familiar.
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Set in 1994 Scotland, “Beats” follows teenagers Johnno (Cristian Ortega) and Spanner (Lorne Macdonald) throughout a couple of days as they navigate the choppy waters of their adolescence. Both young men are EDM fanatics, yet besides their age, the hobby is made more difficult due to the recent passage of the Criminal Justice and Public Order Bill. This new law has many components, but the most troublesome one for Johnno and Spanner is the one criminalizing, “gatherings around music characterized wholly or predominantly by the emission of a succession of repetitive beats.”
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Making matters worse, Johnno and his family will be moving away from the neighborhood in about a week, giving the young friends just one last chance to hit out and have a good time together during an upcoming underground rave. This is particularly important to Spanner, who knows that Johnno is getting pressure from his family to use the move to a new, better neighborhood as an opportunity to leave behind bad habits and old acquaintances. Were this any other film, this set-up might have been enough to carry a rote teenage mayhem yarn, yet “Beats” has a lot more on its mind and a few tricks up its sleeve.
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Director Brian Welsh eschews the standard playbook for this kind of story to explore how aging can act as a stand-in for maturing, and how the two notions are not necessarily tied together. The adults in Johnno and Spanner’s lives are trying to get the two to grow up, yet none of them understand that these kids need to make their own mistakes and learn lessons wholly unique to them. The bond these two guys share is a special one, and not easily defined, so it’s a credit to Welsh and co-writer Kieran Hurley (who authored the play the film is based upon) that this quality, and not the rave that’s at the center of the narrative, defines the film’s emotional thrust.
What’s more, “Beats” is concerned with the ways people cook in a culture’s social and political oven, and how the “problems” of the youth have more to do with the adults than the kids themselves. A startling scene early on featuring Spanner’s abusive older brother outlines the ways kids reflect the worst aspects of those who raise them, but it also demonstrates the remarkable resiliency such treatment can engender. Spanner has every reason to be the trouble-making ruffian Johnno’s parents clock him for, yet as “Beats” progresses, Spanner’s undying loyalty and kindness come into focus as his defining characteristics.
Careful and deliberate character work in the script paints a striking picture of two friends who are outcasts in their little world yet still find a way to integrate into a community. Scotland, as presented in “Beats,” doesn’t offer these guys much in the way of practical guidance or inspiration, after all. Johnno’s parents come off as well-meaning even if they are a bit clueless, much like a government that tries to protect its citizens by going all “Footloose” on them via a dancing ban. What’s more, by shooting “Beats” in black and white, and allowing for an excess of shadows, the visual components of the film sync up with the thematic elements at play. These kids (like so many others) live in the dark corners of a sunny world they’re not ready to embrace (and doesn’t understand how to embrace them).
Laura Fraser does wonderful work as Johnno’s beleaguered mother, as does Neil Leiper as Fido, Spanner’s abusive sibling, rounding out a cast that works well in service to the larger story. It’s Ortega and Macdonald that carry “Beats” on their backs, however, and what works in the film begins and ends with their tremendous turns in the lead roles. Indeed, at the center of all of this is a pair of teenagers who want to be the tough guys their culture expects of them while harboring a passionate love of dance and each other that has the potential to rob them of the puffed-up manhood they can’t help but aspire to. It all adds up to a stark but honest look at young adulthood, and what it feels like to navigate that landscape without a compass and just a handful of unlikely allies. [A-]
