News

“Terrific! A druggy, mind-blowing, eye-opening, open-air, law-defying rave.”

—Film Comment

Music Box Selects Edition of Brian Welsh’s Beats was released on Blu-ray August 1 with an exclusive slip cover design available only via Vinegar Syndrome! A standard edition will be available September 28, wherever Blu-rays are sold. Blu-ray (special edition): August 1, 2021 Srp: $34.95 *Only via Vinegar Syndrome online*

Blu-ray (standard): September 28, 2021; Srp: $29.95 *Wherever Blu-rays are sold*

From Executive Producer Steven Soderbergh, Beats is the New York Times Critic’s Pick that follows best friends and polar opposites Johnno (Cristian Ortega) and Spanner (Lorn Macdonald) who, realizing they are destined for different futures, sneak out to an illegal party in pursuit of one last crazy night together. Beats is a universal story of friendship, rebellion and the irresistible power of music. Check out the trailer:

A universal story of friendship, rebellion, and the irresistible power of music set against the backdrop...

What exactly are Johnno and Spanner? There are moments when the two Scottish teens hate each other’s guts with bilious fervor, others when they’re the “dream team and that,” inseparable and co-dependent best friends à la Diego Luna and Gael Garcia Bernal in Y Tu Mamá También, others still when their bromance veers into an uncharted, emotionally complex terrain. Brian Welsh’s rollicking Beats thrives on these ambiguities, on a greater-than-life friendship between an introvert and his volcanic and beguilingly ruffian neighbor as they brace for a night out that’s likely to be their last–or at any rate, the last rave their central Scotland turf may ever host.

Based on a 2012 play by Keiran Hurley (here credited as co-script writer next to Welsh), Beats thrums with an unbridled energy that owes less to the massive party it culminates with than to the poignant relationship between the...

“The only system is a sound system and if I can’t dance to it, it’s not my revolution,” preaches one of the lead characters in Beats, the UK rave culture film executive-produced by Steven Soderbergh. Here is some first footage, which channels iconic movies such as Trainspotting and La Haine.

Set over summer 1994 in Scotland, the coming of age story follows two friends who jump headfirst into the free party scene before their lives take them in different directions. Soundtrack is curated by Jd Twitch (Optimo) with tracks from The Prodigy, Lee ‘Scratch’ Perry, The Belleville Three, Carl Craig, Hudson Mohawke, Leftfield, Plastikman, Lfo, Orbital and The Golden Filter.

Directed by Brian Welsh (Black Mirror) and written by Welsh and Kieran Hurley (based on Hurley’s play by the same name), the film stars newcomers Cristian Ortega and Lorn Macdonald alongside Laura Fraser (Breaking Bad), Brian Ferguson (Outlander...