Directed by Brian Welsh
Summer 1994, Scotland. Johnno and Spanner are best mates, but Johnno’s family are moving him to a new town and a better life, leaving Spanner behind to face a precarious future. In pursuit of adventure and escape they head out on one last night to an illegal rave before parting ways indefinitely.
Ritem udarcev, Біти, Рейв, 狂躁节拍, Reivs, 비츠, Reivas, מקצב, 狂躁節拍
Netherlands14 International Film Festival Rotterdam 
USA Slamdance Film Festival 
Ireland18 
UK18 
Czechia 
Slovakia15 
Sweden15 
LithuaniaN-16 
Russia18+ USANR 
South Korea15 Czechia Ireland Lithuania Netherlands Russia Slovakia South Korea Sweden UK USA 
I love when this just drops everything and becomes 2001: A Rave Oddessey
‘I mean, just look at his hair. That’s a crime against... his head’
Awesome!
Party movies have a lot of potential, but mostly they’re executed in a silly, commercial way just to appeal to the average teenager. Luckily Beats has a great execution in its genre.
First off, the setting is awesome: the 90’s ravescene. I love the clothes, the haircuts, the big fat accent and the whole vibe of it. It all feels authentic for that time period.
The music is without a doubt almost perfect. Classic after classic techno song is passing by. Although I feel like the mixing could’ve been a bit better, whereas in certain scenes the songs could’ve been brought more to the foreground.
The…
things that make me cry in films:
• male characters expressing platonic love for one another
• slice of life portraits of characters during their last summer before adulthood
• good use of music
things that this film had:
• male characters expressing platonic love for one another
• slice of life portraits of characters during their last summer before adulthood
• good use of music
OONTZ OONTZUH OONTZ OONTZUH OONTZ OONTZUH OONTZ
OEvery generation has that moment right before they’re forced to grow up and everything goes to shit — before society herds them into the adult lives they never wanted, but had to accept in lieu of a better stable. For the former ravers and ruffians of mid-’90s Scotland, whose already fading dreams were squelched out completely by a government decree that criminalized public music characterized “by the emission of a succession of repetitive beats,” that last gasp of disobedience has now been re-crystallized in all its raging glory.
So convincingly set in 1994 that it feels like it was made 26 years ago, Brian Welsh’s “Beats” is a burn-it-all-down bildungsroman about a country…
was not expecting this to be the gayest film of the year so far but there we go!
So-called 'illegal' raves and rave culture in general was seen by many as a protest against Thatcherism and, when Thatcher finally and thankfully fucked off, a celebration that she had gone. It would only stand to reason then that the Tories would find some way to stop the fun thereafter.
The Criminal Justice and Public Order Act of 1994 had numerous parts to it. One of them was the legalisation of anal sex for heterosexual couples, which was very nice of them. I'm sure there was an absolute outbreak of arse fucking across the country after Michael Howard told us it was alright now.
One of most noted aspects of it though, certainly at the time, was the attempt to…
i love the ACAB cinematic universe!!
also parts of this reminded me way too much of y tu mamá también yes i’m sad
Just wanna be kissed on the lips by my best mate at a rave real bad right now.
Not common that films invoke emotions in epilogue titles; Beats awakens more sensitivity, broadly familiar memories n visceral feeling through a flood of words, details and images on a screen than most films could hope to achieve in their feature length. The heart in the verses and power in their feeling leaves me in teary awe every time.
A beautiful, affectionate friendship, bound together through a loving kiss, in a moment relinquished of fear and an affinity to each other impervious to judgement or friction. Gender interactions, beneath the daunting lights of intimacy. Male anxieties, broken down and made obsolete. The union of people, forming of bonds, without the complications of the carnal. The transcendental unity and introspection. An infectious attitude rebelling against social class and authority. The detail, the tone, the stories, the music, all of it. Perfectly weighted and utterly euphoric
Still glorious, sweaty, pulsating fun - if a coming of age is about the frustration and hurricane confusion that comes with your life either being stifled or manipulated by what any one random exterior force is making you do, then this is truly as good as it comes! And Jesus Christ do I just want to go out and RAVE 💔
I was born five months into Thatcher's eleven-year premiership so damn right I am, for better or worse, one of Thatcher's children. But I was just too young (little more than a junior baggy) to truly experience at first hand the acid house and rave scene. That's why Beats emphatically struck a chord with me, because it's the story of the fag end of the scene, 1994. Our two lead characters, Johnno and Spanner, are, like I was at the time, two teenage boys of around fifteen. The film sees these two Scottish lads sample this great grassroots expression of community and rebellion among Thatcher's children only once, before the then Tory Home Secretary Michael Howard introduced the Criminal Justice…
that moment when you find your best friend again after a momentary panic that you've lost them, as you desperately clasp your clammy hands together and touch foreheads, your sweat mingling with theirs and everybody else's in the room, the music swells and it's all you can think about as it pounds in your ears and your head and your entire body, that and the overwhelming, all-consuming love for the person you're jumping up and down with... this film gets that moment just right.
