Lifetime
If you are of a certain age and were into music in the 1980s, the titles ‘I Wonder If I Take You Home’, ‘Can You Feel the Beat’, ‘All Cried Out’, ‘Head to Toe’ and ‘Lost in Emotion’ will bring back memories of an era and make you ask yourself, ‘Whatever happened to Lisa Lisa and Cult Jam?’ Well, the Lifetime network isn’t going to give you that answer, exactly, but their new ‘Voices of a Lifetime’ movie, Can You Feel the Beat: The Lisa Lisa Story, will give you a Cliffs Notes version of the rise of Lisa Lisa, aka Lisa Velez, and the band, warts and all.
Can You Feel the Beat: The Lisa Lisa Story isn’t a full life story of Lisa Velez, instead starting at the age of 15 when the aspiring singer sought out DJ and producer Jellybean at a local club to audition for him. She did manage to make her way backstage, sang a few bars and impressed him enough to score a session at a local studio to cut a track. Backed by friends Mike Hughes and Alex ‘Spanador’ Moseley, but the producer was not impressed with the group (the movie omits the name of the producers, Full Force) but gave Lisa a shot at singing a song she knew. She was a hit and, after coming up with the name Lisa Lisa and Cult Jam, a record contract was quickly drawn up but Lisa needed her mother’s signature, something she was not willing to do before reading the fine print (smart woman). Lisa pressured her though, and she relented, setting her daughter and friends on a path to overnight stardom. But fame was almost out of reach as a suitable back-up singer could not be found before the group’s first tour … until a young woman named Toni walked in the studio, basically took over, sang her heart out and walked out. Lisa followed and told Toni to pack a bag because they were going on tour.
The movie speeds through several years of hit records and non-stop touring, with Lisa being able to pay off her mother’s house and buy her the convertible she always wanted, but cracks were beginning to form, mostly between the boys in the band and Toni, who they saw as just a back-up singer asserting more control than she should, while Lisa stood fast in her support for Toni, who she said was not just her best friend but her sister. The battle for control spiraled until Toni was ousted without Lisa’s knowledge, and to make matters worse Lisa was diagnosed with breast cancer, putting her entire career in jeopardy. She kept her illness secret while fighting against the mens club of the record industry, while also being faced with Toni relapsing into her drug addiction, nearly dying of an overdose on her father’s couch (the coke was supplied by her father and he could not have cared less if she died). Trying to hide her illness and hold the band together, Lisa Lisa has one dream she wants to come true — playing Radio City Music Hall. Does she have the strength, and more importantly the power to make it happen?
Can You Feel the Beat: The Lisa Lisa Story is more than just the Lisa Lisa story, it’s also the Toni Melange story as the two are inextricably linked from the moment they meet. The movie does briefly show us the darker side of being a woman in the male-dominated music industry with a fictionalized version of a record exec making a move on the young girl and basically treating her, the face and voice of the group, as a second class citizen. Lisa also went through an abusive relationship with her father, and had battles with her older brother, but was devoted to her mother (Velez plays her mother in the movie), and the story also touches briefly on her boyfriend and then husband Javi (but he exits the picture and her life without letting us see much of their relationship). Lisa was also devoted to Toni, and the movie takes a few detours into her life and battles with the boys and drugs, shining a spotlight on the true sisterhood the women had (and have as Toni is now Lisa’s manager). This really is a story of female empowerment in a man’s world and for that the movie scores some major points.
Lifetime
Also in the plus side is the performance of Jearnest Corchado as Lisa Lisa, perfectly taking on the singer convincingly as a 15-to-18-year-old (the movie only seems to span two or three years with the first album released in 1985 and the Radio City concert taking place in 1987), a brash teenager with a rapid-fire way of speaking, an amazing voice, and a real drive to get what she wants. She resembles Velez just enough to really sell the characterization and her story, and she brings a fierce strength to the role when needed, while also showing how deeply she cares for Toni and how career-driven she is, wanting and needing to keep performing even while secretly undergoing chemo treatments. Corchado gives a ferocious performance and really does justice to Lisa’s story. Also excellent is Bre-Z as Toni, going from drug dealing street punk with no fashion sense to a more refined performer with raw talent and a business sense that only Lisa respected. Perhaps she was a bit pushy in places, always striving to make Lisa look good in photo shoots and videos while ignoring the guys in the group, but through her performance we also feel crushed for her when she’s unceremoniously dumped from the band and falls back into the drug world. The two women do eventually triumph and take control of their careers, and the viewers cheers them on because of the terrific performances.
Terence Williams and Isaias Alexander Miranda are also very good as Mike and Spanador, with Williams being the more alpha of the two, always clashing with Lisa and Toni under the guise of doing what was best for the group … of which he never considered Toni to be a real member, while Miranda is the more laid back of the two, sometimes agreeing with Mike but realy trying to stay out of the fray. Matt Borlenghi is appropriately sleazy as record exec Barry Conner, while Donny Carrington’s Rocco seems to be focused on making the band a success, but turns out to be just as sleazy as Barry. Eric Diaz also brings Jellybean Benitez to life in a couple of scenes, which was fun for anyone familiar with his music producing career for artists like Madonna, Whitney Houston, Michael Jackson and the Pointer Sisters. Lisa Velez also gives a nice performance of her own mother, channeling her spirit with love and respect.
The drawbacks of the movie is how it just focuses on key moments of Lisa Lisa’s life and career, even in the short time span depicted. We don’t get a lot of depth or much information about the dynamics of the band. There is a lot of information presented, but the movie itself suffers from some choppy editing that sometimes makes your head spin. Those are the pitfalls of making a TV movie that runs two hours but only comes in at less than 90 minutes without commercials. We get just enough information to push us to the next key moment so it feels a little empty in the end. But the film is buoyed by the excellent performances of Corchado and Bre-Z, helping elevate Can You Feel the Beat: The Lisa Lisa Story above the average Lifetime TV movie.
Can You Feel the Beat: The Lisa Lisa Story has a run time of 1 hour 27 minutes, and is rated TV-14.
Official Trailer: Can You Feel the Beat: The Lisa Lisa Story
Lifetime
The only good thing about this movie is that it ended. It was so horrible. Bad acting, bad storyline and the fact that fake characters (brother) were made up made it even more bad. The guy who plays her brother Bryan Arion is CALIENTE though.
@John Childress I totally agree with you and was quite disappointed to not see Full Force represented in the movie. I remember how much they promoted her career back then.
The movie is a major fail without the inclusion of Full Force. They were the creative force and producers of her biggest hits.
That was Lisa’s decision as she had creative control and wanted the story to focus on Lisa Lisa and Cult Jam’s story. The character Rocco was supposed to represent the entirety of Full Force. But, yeah, it was an odd decision to not simply mention them since it was Full Force who put them on the map (and are named on the early albums).
“Matt Borlenghi is appropriately sleazy as record exec Barry Conner”. 🤣 Welp, thanks for spelling my name correctly 🤣.