It won’t come as a surprise to most that celebrity culture is riddled with ills, especially when it involves taking vulnerable young women, barely dressing them and letting them loose to gyrate around a stage and extol the virtues of a promiscuous and materialistic lifestyle. Both the deliverer and the recipient of that message are coming off pretty badly. It’s a blatant “well, duh!” foundation for a film, but one that Beyond The Lights still manages to weave into an affecting, entertaining story.

Unlike those biopics of actual musicians that are all backstory, writer/director Gina Prince-Bythewood establishes the life that has forged superstar Noni (Gugu Mbatha-Raw) through a couple of simple flashbacks. Her mother, played for the most part with a kind of boo-hiss stage mom scary determination by Minnie Driver, bulls her way into a hairdresser to get Noni’s wild hair tamed for a talent show. Noni’s awkward charm is immediately evident and her performance of Nina Simone’s Blackbird is pretty damn impressive, but hard lessons are still learned that day and the adult Noni we meet is a definite repercussion of her mother’s no-holds-barred, win-at-all-costs mentality. With her revealing outfits and purple hair, it’s hard not to see Noni as a cautionary tale version of Rihanna, or Miley Cyrus – surrounded by people who may genuinely adore her but none of whom have her best interests at heart.

It’s all quite broad and obvious, from the degrading photo shoots to the bad influence, rapper boyfriend, who may as well have “thug life” tattooed on his chest. That it goes wrong will surprise absolutely nobody – but it’s still something of a shock to see this starlet wander back drunk to her hotel room and attempt to jump off the balcony. Her suicidal endeavour is foiled by the cop landed with babysitting duty and from there, Beyond The Lights gets really interesting. Nate Parker brings an earnest charm and fallibility to Kaz, a cop on the fast track to a political career, egged on by his ambitious father (Danny Glover). While both Noni and Kaz’s pushy parents are quite broadly drawn, more plot devices than real people (save for a beautifully played scene where Driver’s character finally reveals her humanity), the two leads feel incredibly real and that’s what gives the film its power.

Gugu Mbatha-Raw has such high-wattage star quality that she utterly convinces as a popstar, while also managing to bring out the flawed, damaged person underneath and then mesh those two halves into a credible whole. Her singing voice is also stunning, especially one acapella performance later in the film. She has exceptional chemistry with Parker and the tender scenes between the two are a joy to watch, helping the film through its cheesier moments with their sincere, committed performances.

In essence, Beyond The Lights isn’t a “warts and all look” at music’s seedy underbelly; it’s a fairytale. Take it as that and it’s hugely enjoyable and surprisingly moving. But mostly, it’s a sign that Mbatha-Raw is one scarily talented young lady.

Beyond the Lights is available to own on DVD now.