************************This review contains spoilers****************************
Becks follows a young woman of the same name (Lena Hall) forced to move back to St. Louis with her staunchly Catholic mother Ann (Christine Lahti) after driving from New York to L.A. to join her bandmate/girlfriend as she tries out for a singing competition, only to catch her in the act of cheating immediately after arriving to their new place. While home, Becks strikes up an unlikely friendship with her high school tormentor’s wife Elyse (Mena Suvari).
Becks is an interesting, character-driven study of what it is like to love with complications. The title character is a stereotypical, east coast millennial; someone with Midwestern roots trying to find their footing both professionally and personally, while being in a state of arrested development in both areas. While her life is in shambles, the exoticism and excitement she embodies transfixes Elyse, whose upper class housewife life bores her. Elyse’s innocence and Becks’ unconventionality draw one toward the other until curiosity becomes infatuation. But such an illicit love affair between a lesbian and a married woman in the conservative, Midwestern suburbs comes with its issues.
Despite their love for one another, melding their two worlds comes at the cost of too many others. Once Becks and Elyse are discovered by Ann, their mother-daughter relationship is torpedoed as Ann tells Becks she won’t allow her daughter’s selfishness to upend her previously harmonious life. In the end, as she watched Elyse kiss her husband goodbye on the steps of their idyllic McMansion, Becks seemingly takes her mother’s words to heart and abandons her lover in St. Louis, rather than absconding back to New York together. Becks’ decision is the real life execution of what we say to loves that we’ve lost but mostly never truly mean, “I just want what’s best for you, even if that means we can’t be together.” Becks faces her own desire for Elyse and after considering what it would do to the life Elyse has built for herself, decides to spare her lover the destruction, even at the cost of her own happiness. This point is heartbreakingly shown to us by first time film co-directors Daniel Powell and Elizabeth Rohrbaugh through back to back shots of Elyse and Becks’ tears at the end of the film as they sit alone and realize that their time has run its course. Love seems so simple, until it’s not.
The music in the film provided by singer/songwriter Alyssa Robbins, whose life story serves as a basis for the film, is a great accessory with the first and last solo performances from Becks standing out most. Robbins’ lyrics and compositions are beautifully written and convincingly performed by Hall. The songs being personalized to Becks’ experiences that we see to the film help with both translating what we’ve seen and how they’ve impacted the character, and making Becks’ background as an aspiring musician that much more believable.
Lena Hall performs wonderfully as Becks, with the Tony award winning and Grammy nominated actress/singer/songwriter displaying the enormity of her first two listed talents. This role should serve as a springboard for her foray into film, showing the ability to both act and sing expertly at the same time and opening up a wealth of opportunities on-screen for her many talents to be utilized in a myriad of ways. Mena Suvari also shines as the other half of the couple at the center of the film, displaying a change in character type for her that is both convincing and well executed. Her chemistry with Hall is completely believable, as is her portrayal of a housewife longing for something passionate that sparks her and makes her feel alive. Their performances make the film work. Christine Lahti gives a quality performance as Becks’ religiously uptight mother torn between her love for her children and her love for God. She is involved in much of the film’s dramatic beats and ably ensures that its challenging parts come off as they are supposed to. Dan Fogler works very well as Becks’ former HS boyfriend and best friend, providing a lot of the film’s humor as a comedic partner for Hall.
Directors Powell and Rohrbaugh’s debuts behind the camera are also notable and mark them as intriguing up-and-comers to watch. Their camera work has some real notable moments such as the aforementioned emotional shots of Elyse and Becks, as well as the couple’s first romantic encounter in a stairwell.
While Becks is not thematically complex or intricate, it is a very well done character study with a dynamic musical component, and well timed humor mixed with captivating drama. The main performances buoy the film and keep viewers attentive and emotionally connected throughout. It is also notable how Becks is a film about a lesbian woman without being about lesbianism. It is a universal story about feeling lost and loving in tough circumstances simply told through a lesbian woman. For fans of independent cinema and love stories with an element of realism, Becks is definitely a worthwhile watch. The fact that it’s available from the comfort of your couch through various streaming sites for less than half the cost of a movie ticket, is all the more reason to give it a try.
Image: Blue Fox Entertainment
