Becks

Well, Hayley “Lesbian Jesus” Kiyoko is in Becks so it shouldn’t be a surprise that the movie is good.

The movie follows Becks, a musician who moves back in to her small town and stays at her mother’s house after a break-up. Said breakup is with Hayley Kiyoko’s character, another musician who had moved out to L.A. Becks follows her to L.A. from New York only to find that she’s been cheated on. So Becks moves back in with her mother to get back on her feet. She starts making money by teaching guitar and performing at a bar owned by her friend, Dave. Soon, Becks meets Elyse. Elyse is the wife of Becks’ old high school rival. The two women bond when Becks starts teaching Elyse guitar. Then, whoops! They start having an affair.

Becks is a simple, frankly unimportant narrative. The stakes are low to non-existent and the conflict is minimal. There are also lots of movie similar to it. Becks stands apart from these movies because it is good. No, this is not the most exciting nor original movie but it takes its simple premise and executes it competently.

To start with, the characters are well done. The characters are charming yet also flawed which makes them feel real and human. It is easy to connect with them. Each character also has an individual personality and beyond this, a unique cadence to their speech. Sense of humour and ways of talking vary from person to person which again, makes these feel like real, unique people.

I liked the music element as well. Not only did I enjoy the songs but they helped flesh out Beck’s character. Through her performance, we understand Becks’ current state of mind and her feelings about her recent breakup and new woman in her life. Becks utilizes its character’s musical performances to shine light on who she is as a character.

The ending of the film is a bummer. But a realistic one. The personal and interpersonal issues Becks and other characters face weren’t wholly dealt with within the film’s run time. Yes, they made progress but not enough that a happy ending would have made sense. I’m in favour of this. I like that characters didn’t do a complete turn around in 90 minutes and solve long-running issues with each other for the sake of a happy ending. Not only would that not be realistic but that wasn’t the focus f the film. As such, I respect this film’s somewhat downer ending.

Becks is a simple story done well. A good cast, good sense of humour and good use of music elevates the movie beyond the many similar but less competent films in this genre.

Overall rating: 6.4/10

Other WLW films in similar genres