Title: Straight Outta Compton
Director: F. Gary Gray
Writer: Jonathan Herman and Andrea Berlof
Cast: O’Shea Jackson, Jr., Corey Hawkins, Jason Mitchell, Paul Giamatti, Aldis Hodge, and, Neil Brown, Jr.
In theaters August 14, 2015
As a general rule, I’m not a fan of the biopic movie genre, which is riddled with cliches and tropes. Protagonists don’t seem to have decisions and choices in biopics because they’re always working on the idea of destiny. They are no longer normal people, but rather agents of success and admiration. Of course, this is just a general rule and there are biopics that have come to surprise me with its level of craft, structure, and believability. Straight Outta Compton might look like your normal biopic, but there’s just something about its infectious and energetic storytelling that separates it from the rest.
Straight Outta Compton follows the founding and forming of N.W.A., a pioneering rap group that changed the course of hip-hop and social awareness during the late 80s and early 90s. The film focuses on N.W.A.’s three most successful members, Dr. Dre (Corey Hawkins), Eazy-E (Jason Mitchell), and Ice Cube (O’Shea Jackson Jr. – the real Ice Cube’s son). While the film centers in on important plot points throughout the influential rap group’s career, it dives deep with why each character made decisions to create or leave N.W.A. or trust the wrong people, namely the group’s manager Jerry Heller (Paul Giamatti – whenever you cast Paul Giamatti in a movie, he’s usually the shifty one you can never trust). Instead of just playing like a dramatized version of VH1’s Behind The Music, Straight Outta Compton unfolds like articles from Source Magazine from the early 90s. We get multiple point-of-view and see important events from many characters. It’s actually quite clever and refreshing to watch a biopic with this type of structure.
While there are a few plot threads that seem to be forgotten instead of developed, Straight Outta Compton has a great energy. Much like the members of N.W.A., the film is fully irreverent, as it pushes against audience expectations. Straight Outta Compton tip-toes around varying tones of humor and intensity, which is attributed to the film’s director F. Gary Gray. He’s one of Ice Cube’s longtime collaborators, as a the director of “Today Is A Good Day” music video and the first Friday movie. Although F. Gary Gray has a few duds over the years, he’s completely on his A-game for Straight Outta Compton, namely in his camerawork and editing, which I dug!
The film’s cast is fully top-notch, especially O’Shea Jackson Jr., who uncannily resembles his father, and Jason Mitchell, who plays Eazy-E. Interestingly, he’s the main character of the film. It starts with him and it ends with him after all. Mitchell can quickly turn from hard-edged gangster to awkward to sympathetic human being and every step of the film, he’s completely believable and resourceful. It’s really hard to imagine anyone else playing one of the founding members of N.W.A. with such talent and ease.
Unsurprisingly, the film is just as socially relevant now as it was during the real-life events of Straight Outta Compton. A majority of the film is spent on the LAPD harassing N.W.A., just because they are young black men with no power. They can push them around and threaten them with violence because no one (white America) will care or pay attention. Even when N.W.A makes it big in the music industry, they are still the targets of random police harassment. After all, the rap group was made famous with the song “Fuck The Police.” Straight Outta Compton also takes place during the Rodney King police brutality case, as a point of reference of N.W.A.’s music and real life. While the film is violent at times, Straight Outta Compton makes a point to recognize the systemic racism that is alive and well in 2015.
With a running time of 150 minutes, Straight Outta Compton almost feels like two movies; the first about N.W.A’s meteoric rise to fame and fortune and the second about its splintering and subsequent success of its surviving members, namely Dr. Dre and Ice Cube. Eazy-E is clearly at the center of the film and you have to give the pair and the filmmakers credit for making the decision to do so. It informs N.W.A. as a whole and give people who are unfamiliar with the rapper and entrepreneur his life story. It seems that the movie was made for everyone, especially middle America, as it’s also a sobering wake up call to what’s going on outside of the suburbs and in the inner city. Straight Outta Compton has as much shock value as N.W.A.’s debut record of the same name. In both cases, the film and the record is a reflection of America in the late 80s, early 90s, and, sadly, today.
Acting: A-
Story: B+
Technical: A-
Overall: A-
