Beyond the Lights

Essentially a riff on The Bodyguard, this cheesy but entertaining "fame is pain" tear-jerker offers rising British actress Gugu Mbatha-Raw a very different leading role from the one she played in period drama Belle. She plays Noni, a hip-hop superstar who's been groomed for success since childhood by pushy mum Minnie Driver. But Noni now feels lost inside her artificial showbiz persona, and attempts a suicide bid from which she's saved by hunky cop-cum-minder Nate Parker. Love blossoms, and Noni is prompted to re-evaluate her life, her love and her music. Beyond the Lights is unashamedly corny, and leaves no music-biz cliché unmined. But it pushes all those big buttons marked "for audiences seeking undemanding, escapist entertainment". And Mbatha-Raw is undoubtedly a star in the making.