Yet another tale of people's lives being changed by an unlikely hero. In this one, token ironic hero Rex is a new student in a New York City high school who doesn't fit in but has a penchant for poetry. After being the victim of a violent society that is unwilling to accept the different and in his case, the mentally challenged, he somehow manages to build his own little following of friends all of whom he changes the perceptions of. He makes them buy into some type of quasi-Religion that he invents and talks in verse that only melodramatic beatniks could appreciate. For some reason, his friends, who are in a constant struggle with adults and questions of adulthood, actually begin to understand what he's talking about and become better people for it.
While you can't really fault the movie for using the same tried and true formula that later made Forrest Gump successful, half the move you spend trying to figure out exactly what the heck Rex is saying. Just as with all poetry, his words are open to interpretation and the fact all his work seems ripped straight out of a bad mad lib book doesn't help any. A boring plot line that doesn't go anywhere and an extremely anti-climactic, predictable ending don't do anything to peak interest. Besides Rex's incessant ramblings, most of the characters can't seem to express themselves without throwing an expletive in their sentences here, there and everywhere. Also look out for punk teenager stereotypes and an odd lack of ethnic diversity in a strange New York as anomalies.
All in all, the Beat is under dramatic, predictably sympathetic work that won't do anyone any harm. Good to show on tape to an English class, if only to show students how poetry is not done.
