Underrated! Beyond The Neon || Movie Review.

This movie touched me deeply and if something bad hasn't happened to you before you will definitely think you are living in a world designed with roses and pleasure. Outside in the real world, a lot of bad things happen to people and with every day passing by someone becomes a victim one way or the other. It's sad how humanity continues to go darker every day and just makes me think, is it worth it to bring more children into this world?

"Beyond The Neon (2022)" is a movie that is negatively criticized, underrated, and hidden away from so many audiences because of the negative reviews which I find strange. I enjoyed watching this movie because it was insightful, relevant and it is a movie that every parent or aspiring parent should watch and learn from it.

"Beyond The Neon (2022)" is an American documentary, crime, mystery, and thriller. It was based on true life events and directed by Larry A. McLean. It was written by Marisa Dzintars and Woodrow Wilson Hancock III. Hancock also was in charge of the production. The movie starred Joey Salads (a popular YouTuber), Cynthia Lucero, Gila Goodman, Marisa Dzintars, Woodrow Wilson Hancock III, Seth Hancock, alongside others. The movie revolves around a popular YouTuber, Joey Salads who is popularly known for his social experiment prank video and who discovered the scary truth behind escort flyers in Las Vegas.

Brief Plot

The movie starts with the introduction of Joey Salads which tells us about him, his occupation, and what made him decide to pursue the truth behind Vegas escort flyers. So Joey happens to be in Las Vegas when he was given an escort flyers card and he was curious to know the story behind the escort cards and how the women survive in their world. Joey contacted his friend Lisa who has been in the industry for 16 years to help him uncover the deep secret behind the escort's flyers card.

Pursuing his story, Joey decided to call for an escort to his hotel where he sets up a secret camera and audio gadgets to record the conversations he is going to have with the escort. After a while, the escort arrives and Joey pays her more money to answer his questions which at first the escort was cooperative which made Joey sense that the escort is being used against her wish. Deeper into the conversation, the escort became hostile and left Joey's hotel room. Afterward, Joey uploaded the recorded video of his conversation with the escort to his youtube channel and obscured the escort's identity.

His video got millions of views and millions of shares which made it the video the most viral video on his YouTube channel. Coincidentally, six months later, a lady, Tracy saw the viral video of Joey Salads and identifies the escort as her sister who has been missing for a decade. With hope, Tracy reached out to Joey Salads for more help to find her sister Kyla and bring her back home. Did Joey Salads reach out back to Tracy? Will Tracy find her sister? Or will her hope and expectations be dashed?

My Review And Rating.

I will say, the director did a good job with this movie. I love how all the scenes were arranged and acted out. All the scenes were arranged in a certain way that transports the audience into the world of Las Vegas Escorts. I find the movie one of the best and most realistic movies about human trafficking. There was no inclusion of stunts or action, everything that happened in the movie happened naturally. As this movie was directed, the director made sure to maintain the storyline naturally and also make it as real as possible to the audience.

The actors were all good and there is no criticizing them because all of them witnessed the whole thing in real life so they all acted their roles as they experienced it. The characters' background stories were all built rich. The plot was well-written, tightly paced, and had no potholes.

What makes this movie spectacular is the videography style. I love it because it made everything raw in this movie. There is no reconstruction of scenes or rewrite of some plot scenes. Everything that Joey Salads recorded during his course for investigation of the story, was used for the movie to further solidify its authenticity which I appreciate. Also, the inclusion of Joey Salads' interrogation was added to the movie and I will consider this movie a raw documentary and not a film. Though a lot of people expect a fine-tuned film, reconstructed storyline, and a little bit of action scenes, but if the producers of the movie had done that, it would have watered down the effect of the movie on its audience.

Now I recommended this movie to parents or people aspiring to watch this movie because it covers the negative effects of the internet, and the positive effects of social media, it also lets parents know that, it is their primary responsibility to make their home a safe space for their children and place that is not judgemental. Yes, I know parenting can be difficult to go through especially when the children are teenagers throwing tantrums, but then it is important to make sure your children know that they are loved unconditionally regardless of how they behave.

In the case of this documentary, Kyla left home because she was treated as the black sheep of the family, she was constantly reminded that her sister Tracy was better than her, and every day she was reminded that she was a trouble child when all she needed then was a little bit of attention and love. The predator so these signs and took advantage of them to pull her into a barbaric and brutal world with no means or hope of ever escaping.

I think this movie has been hidden away from the actual targeted audience (Parents or aspiring parents) because of the negative reviews from people who taught this movie was a refined documentary. "Beyond The Neon" is actually a raw documentary which not meant for enjoyment or pleasure. This movie was meant to be watched for educational purposes and for parents to be enlightened on how predators look for their victims, the signs they see, and how they get them through the use of the internet.

Rating this movie, I will give it 4.5 out of 5 stars and I recommend it to parents, aspiring parents, documentary lovers, and crime lovers too. It was wonderful to watch me and it was insightful to me as it reminded me that a lot of people are out there looking for a way out but can't find a way. If you have watched it, do watch it soon. If can't stomach down human trafficking stories, do not watch.