Beyond the Lights 2 stars Directed by Gina Prince-Bythewood Starring Gugu Mbatha-Raw, Nate Parker, Minnie Driver Rated PG-13

It would be interesting to watch "Beyond the Lights" with someone like, say, Rihanna. The movie's heroine is Noni, a successful but unhappy R&B starlet known for her sexually provocative videos. As a child, Noni (Gugu Mbatha-Raw) wanted to sing like Nina Simone, but today's fans want fantasies. At a Billboard Music Awards ceremony, Noni obligingly shows up wearing little more than gold chains and a massive choker -- slave-bling, essentially, that symbolically degrades her gender and perhaps her race.

It's one of several striking images that hint at what "Beyond the Lights" might have been. Written and directed by Gina Prince-Bythewood ("Love and Basketball"), the movie can be a surprisingly pointed take on the entertainment industry, here depicted as a machine driven by self-exploiting women and the men who sell their records. Mostly, though, "Beyond the Lights" is a tepid romance in which Nina falls for Kaz (Nate Parker), a young cop stationed outside her Los Angeles hotel room.

Prince-Bythewood deserves credit though for hammering the music industry harder than most price-of-fame dramas dare.