Autumn Beat review: Pleasing story highlighting love and desires

Autumn Beat is a coming-of-age story that follows the lives of two brothers, Paco and Tito, as they use rap and music to pursue fame, wealth, and ultimately peace. The movie is streaming on Prime Video.

Story

Paco is a natural rapper, and Tito, Paco’s brother, is a fantastic writer. The pair are pursuing fame and glory in the music industry together with David, a buddy and song producer, and Ify, Paco’s lover.

Even though Tito and David were crucial to Paco’s ability to close a significant contract, he prefers to overshadow the others. Tito leaves the room after closing the door, broken and hurt. Since he was a young child, Paco’s relationships with Grace, their mother, have likewise been strained.

David introduces Tito to Paco and Ify’s daughter Aisha, age 8, years later when Tito attends Paco’s burial. He lets Tito know that Ify has left Paco and asks him to look after Aisha. Despite his initial reluctance, Tito quickly develops a rhythm with Aisha. 

Tito also visits Ify because he is determined to give Aisha a better life. Ify arrives to visit Tito and Aisha despite having gone on with her life. Ify assures Tito that she would be there for Aisha, but she also begs Tito to assure the family that he will be there. She hugs Tito before leaving and promising to return the next day.

Performances

Autumn Beat’s coming-of-age theme and storyline have been rendered a greater depth by the convincing and confident performance of lead actors, Abby 6ix (Paco) and Hamed Seydou (Tito).

Being a musical artist himself, Abby gets into the shoes of Paco with ease and grace despite Autumn Beat being his first a=ever role. Autumn Beat marks the debut of Hamed Seydou as well. 20-year-old Seydou clinches a brilliant success blending in with Tito. His broken dialogue delivery, slow movements and teary eyes reflect the mental agony and deep wounds in Tito’s heart.

Abby pulls off a neat stunt, making Paco be loved and hated at the same time and portraying Paco as a not-so-good man, but neither an entirely bad one. On the other hand, Hamed leaves us to empathize with Tito, making his pain and agony ours.

Apart from the lead characters, the supporting casts by Genome (Ify), Dylan Magon (David), Juliet Joseph (Grace) and Gue Pequeno (as himself) also give a fine performance.

There is little question that the primary actors would have delivered a strong performance regardless of whether the story revolved around athletics or literature.

Positives

The greatest strength of the film is a set of debut actors who have blended well with their characters. Director Antonio Dikele Distefano has done a fine job selecting them and assigning their roles. 

The cinematography and the background scores go well with the mindset and emotions of the characters and further strengthen the storyline. They play a significant role in highlighting the troubled mind of Tito and his evolution.

The story also gives a small glimpse of racial issues and tensions prevailing in a heterogenous and yet stratified European community. The issues regarding the adoption of Afro-European children by European parents and consequent difficulties in their integration into either world are also briefly touched upon in the movie.

Autumn Beat, a musical drama, provides a definitive edge to Abby, Dylan and Gue. However, the feature film is primarily about the characters and their personas themselves and not the world of rap or music. 

The director also uses a composed narration and does not resort to overly sentimentalising the plot. Brilliant acting and befitting cinematography and musical scores further make the movie worth a watch. 

Negatives

The movie largely focuses on Paco and Tito and hence misses to showcase the situations and evolution of Grace and Ify, who seem to be as deep as the lead characters are. 

The movie also masquerades as a musical drama, while the musical aspect is only a replaceable overlay.

While the movie has touched upon the racial issues in the European community, it fails to make an impact due to its excessively subdued tone. It would have been better if stronger images were used for this purpose.

Verdict

Although “Autumn Beat” has a slow and melancholic pace, the ending will undoubtedly give the protagonists’ lives some hope. Despite the protagonists’ intense involvement in the musical segment of the film, the audience might not be enthralled.

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