bletcherstonerson
The music, is great. I actually have the music on my mp, but the story is your standard " rebel without a clue" story line. The actress pulls it off and makes it believable until the end, where her limitations show on the screen The heroine,is a confused young girl that hates her parents and is looking for a way to detach herself from the culture of their generation . She starts dreaming of escaping her life of comfort by planning to work as a stripper in the club across from coffee house she hangs out at. The fantasy of working in an atmosphere of stale beer, thick smoke and sweaty men who have a cornucopia of sexual proclivities is an uncontrollable sirens call to her soul. It is worth watching and the lead actress showed great promise but never really did much after this film. I did like the shooting locations and sets, the cinematography is above par, it has many attributes for a "B" Brit teen exploitation flick.
andrabem-1
"Beat Girl" is a very entertaining exploitation film, but it also has a sociological value - it shows the growing rock scene in pre-Beatles England, as well as the growing youth rebellion. There are many rock songs inspired in the sounds that came across the Atlantic that serve to spice the film up, but above all "Beat Girl" tells the story of Jennifer and her gang and the way she tries to get what she wants. She dares and dares (Jennifer's no chicken), till one day she goes too far...Jennifer has an understanding father whom she despises, a stepmother that she hates - excepting her gang, her rebellion is against all. Jennifer is sexy, charismatic and cynical, and the camera loves her, it's her film, and Gillian Hills is really something! "Beat Girl" is above all a good exploitation film. It shows scenes that were very daring for the time - Jennifer, the night clubs...For those that like exploitation films and rock, "Beat Girl" is a real treat.
bkoganbing
Beat Girl is the United Kingdom's answer to some of the American made teen flicks that were popular drive-in movie fare at this time on our side of the pond. The Beat Girl here is Gillian Hills who is very upset that her dad David Farrar has married this knockout of a young bride in Noelle Adam. She's French, she could be a Brigitte Bardot clone and in a most Freudian turn of the plot the daughter is in a jealous rage over Adam who is only about seven years older than her.But when Adam comes down to the coffee bar that Hills and her friends hang out at, she finds an old friend who works at a nearby strip joint who knew her when. It seems that Farrar has not been told the whole story of wife's background and now Hills has something on Adam.What she doesn't count on is the sleazy owner of the strip joint who has a taste for jail-bait. Christopher Lee in a little time out from Hammer horror films is the best thing about Beat Girl. Also in small roles are Oliver Reed and Nigel Green.British pop star Adam Faith and Peter McEnery and Shirley Anne Field play Gillian Hills's disaffected youthful companions. Faith has a couple of songs in the film which are the other main feature.Beat Girl was trashy when it was first out and age hasn't improved it any. In the final analysis Hills just proves to be a spoiled brat and the London bobby's advice to Farrar about her needing a good walloping is long overdue.
David Ostrem
I gave this a 10 because I only give two ratings, 10 or zero, pass or no pass. Let's talk about Brit Rock. I was 15 and growing up in the US when this movie came out and there was no such term as Brit Rock. When the Beatles, Stones, and the others came out I completely disregarded them. Who needs these guys doing Chuck Berry and Bo Diddley when we have the real thing. Eventually I came to appreciate what they were doing and soon developed a deep admiration for the British rock movement going back to the 50's. This movie, though fraught with awkwardness, has some very telling points. A very important point is made when the kids were discussing the war scars. We Americans knew nothing of that. To us rock was just a big jolly product. But these kids had a way more emotional need for it and they took it more seriously and they wound up exporting our own music right back to us and basically saved Rock and Roll. Now the bad part of this film is the pre posterous and thoroughly embarrassing "hip talk" although all the American rock films of the time did pretty well the same thing. And the plot is pretty tiresome but it still shows that basic need for rock, the big thing about rock has always been that need. It's like in the Lou Reed song, "her life was saved by rock and roll". Goofy as this movie is, it does convey that message.
AD
