''Becks'' is a 2017 American

musical Musical is the adjective of music. Musical may also refer to: * Musical theatre, a performance art that combines songs, spoken dialogue, acting and dance * Musical film and television, a genre of film and television that incorporates into the narr ...

drama film In film and television, drama is a category or genre of narrative fiction (or semi-fiction) intended to be more serious than humorous in tone. Drama of this kind is usually qualified with additional terms that specify its particular super-g ...

directed by Daniel Powell (in his feature directorial debut) and Elizabeth Rohrbaugh, and co-written with Rebecca Drysdale. It stars

Lena Hall Celina Consuela Gabriella Carvajal (born January 30, 1980), known professionally as Lena Hall, is an American actress and singer. She originated the role of Nicola in the Broadway theatre, Broadway musical ''Kinky Boots (musical), Kinky Boots'' ...

Mena Suvari Mena Alexandra Suvari (; born February 13, 1979) is an American actress, producer, fashion designer and model. After beginning her career as a model and guest-starring on several television shows, she made her film debut in the 1997 drama '' Now ...

, and

Hayley Kiyoko Hayley Kiyoko Alcroft (born April 3, 1991) is an American singer, dancer and actress. As a child model and actress, she appeared in a variety of films including ''Scooby-Doo (film series), Scooby-Doo!'' film series (2009–2010), ''Lemonade Mouth ...

. The film centers on a lesbian musician named Becks who moves back to her childhood home in

St. Louis St. Louis () is the second-largest city in Missouri, United States. It sits near the confluence of the Mississippi and the Missouri Rivers. In 2020, the city proper had a population of 301,578, while the bi-state metropolitan area, which e ...

after a failed relationship. ''Becks'' premiered at the 2017

Los Angeles Film Festival The LA Film Festival was an annual film festival that was held in Los Angeles, California, and usually took place in June. It showcased independent, international, feature, documentary and short films, as well as web series, music videos, episod ...

and won Best Film in the U.S. Fiction category.

Plot

Becks (Hall) is a backup musician for her singer girlfriend, Lucy (Kiyoko), living in New York City. After Lucy is cast in an upcoming aspiring singer reality TV show, she moves to Los Angeles and Becks packs up their apartment and road trips to meet her. When Becks arrives in LA she catches Lucy with another woman. Becks then moves back to her hometown of St. Louis, Missouri to live with her devoutly Catholic mother, Ann (Lahti), who states she is uncomfortable with Becks' sexuality. Becks then rekindles a friendship with her former high school boyfriend, Dave (Fogler), who now owns a bar in town. Becks begins to play shows regularly at the bar and meets Elyse (Suvari), the bored housewife of a man Becks went to high school with. Elyse pays Becks for guitar lessons and they begin a clandestine romance. After Ann catches them having sex, she kicks Becks out of the house. Becks and Elyse plan to move to New York together, but Becks leaves without her and returns to Brooklyn.

Cast

as Mary Rebecca "Becks" *

as Elyse *

Christine Lahti Christine Ann Lahti (born April 4, 1950) is an American actress and filmmaker. She was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for the 1984 film '' Swing Shift''. Her other film roles include '' ...And Justice for All'' (19 ...

as Ann *

Dan Fogler Daniel Kevin Fogler (born October 20, 1976) is an American actor, comedian and writer. He has appeared in films including ''Balls of Fury'', ''Good Luck Chuck'', ''Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them'', '' Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grin ...

as Dave *

Michael Zegen Michael Jonathan Zegen (born February 20, 1979) is an American actor. He is best known for his roles in the television series ''Rescue Me (American TV series), Rescue Me'' (2004–2011), ''Boardwalk Empire'' (2011–2014), and ''The Marvelous Mr ...

as Pete *

as Lucy

Reception

Critical response

review aggregator A review aggregator is a system that collects reviews of products and services (such as films, books, video games, software, hardware, and cars). This system stores the reviews and uses them for purposes such as supporting a website where users ...

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...

, the film has a 95% rating based on reviews from 20 critics, and an average rating of 6.9/10. On

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that review aggregator, aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted arithmetic mean, weighted average). M ...

, it received a score of 64 (out of 100) based on seven critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews". Kimber Myers wrote for ''The Los Angeles Times'', "Sexy and sexually frank, “Becks” works thanks to the musical talent and offbeat charms of its lead. Hall feels authentic at each moment, whether she's strumming a guitar in a dive bar, fighting with her mother or falling in love." In a less positive review, Pat Padua wrote in ''The Washington Post'', "Hall and Suvari have a palpable chemistry, both musically and in their relationship. But despite effective moments, "Becks," like its central character, never finds its footing."

Accolades

''Becks'' won Best Film in the U.S. Fiction category at the 2017 Los Angeles Film Festival.

References

External links

* * {{IMDb title, 6150942, Becks 2017 films 2010s musical drama films 2017 LGBT-related films American musical drama films American independent films 2010s English-language films Films about music and musicians Lesbian-related films LGBT-related musical drama films 2017 drama films 2010s American films