Beats

Beats is a 2019 British drama film directed Brian Welsh. It was based upon a play of the same name by Kieran Hurley, who adapted the screenplay with Welsh; Steven Soderbergh acts as an executive producer. The plot follows a pair of teenage friends in 1994 Scotland who try and sneak into an illegal rave party. The film was released in the United Kingdom on 17 May 2019. Premise The film is set in 1994 in Livingston, Scotland, against the backdrop of the Criminal Justice and Public Order Act 1994, which effectively banned outdoor rave parties across the whole of the UK. Best friends Johnno and Spanner are going to a rave for the first, and perhaps last time together. Production Brian Welsh first came into contact with Steven Soderbergh around 2015, after Soderberg had seen an episode of Black Mirror that Welsh had directed and approached him with a new project. While Welsh turned that down, he showed his Beats script to Soderberg, who then joined as an executive producer on the film. For the climactic rave sequence, filming took place in a warehouse in the Glasgow city centre, using over 1,500 background actors. The film's soundtrack was curated by JD Twitch of Optimo. Release Beats had its international debut at the 2019 International Film Festival Rotterdam. On 17 May 2019 it was released in the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland, and on 7 November 2019 in the Netherlands.