64
Metascore
14 reviews · Provided by Metacritic.com
- 80SlashfilmJason GorberSlashfilmJason GorberCasablanca Beats drums its ideas loudly and effectively. The result is a boisterous and crowd-pleasing delight, showing a community with deep specificity that nonetheless speaks to the concerns of young people all over the world.
- 80CineVueJohn BleasdaleCineVueJohn BleasdaleThere’s no revolutionary moment of success in which the meanies are ousted and hip-hop declared godly. Music is like education in this: it’s all about the movement, not the destination.
- 70The Hollywood ReporterDeborah YoungThe Hollywood ReporterDeborah YoungAyouch’s most personal feature film, it infects the audience with its passion and the unshakable belief that a person who has self-confidence and self-expression can really change society.
- 70VarietyJessica KiangVarietyJessica KiangIt’s perhaps a little glib to make a choral event of a hip-hop musical when hip-hop is so much a medium for individual creative expression — for a single voice to speak its truth — but it’s hard to argue when the results are this energetic, this empowering and this irresistibly youthful.
- 60The GuardianPeter BradshawThe GuardianPeter BradshawIt is all presented earnestly and engagingly, though self consciously, and if the political debates are unsolved, well, that could be because they are unsolved in real life. It’s certainly a heartening demonstration that new ideas can flourish in a religious society.
- 60Little White LiesMarina AshiotiLittle White LiesMarina AshiotiAyouch means well, interpreting the teens’ connection to rap music as emblematic of a rebellious spirit, yet deeper discussions on other social issues – politics, women’s rights, religion – are unfortunately reduced to mere sources of frustration, either ending abruptly or remaining incomplete.
- 60The Irish TimesTara BradyThe Irish TimesTara BradyTaking cues from the lively cast, Nabil Ayouch’s third feature to make it to Cannes is scrappy, occasionally messy, prone to distractions, and never less than diverting.
- 40The TelegraphRobbie CollinThe TelegraphRobbie CollinCasablanca Beats just about gets by on restless teenage energy and its bustle of winning young faces. But it’s a new arrangement of a very familiar old song.