Straight Outta Compton: A Review
Starring : O’Shea Jackson Jr., Jason Mitchell, Corey Hawkins, Paul Giamatti, Aldis Hodge
Director: F. Gary Gray
Straight Outta Compton (2015) is more than a movie that lives up to the hype; it sets the precedent for what future music biopics should strive to be. The energy, the acting, and the performance are all present and are kept at a high level until the very end. Even if you were born after the time of N.W.A, you will get a great view of how a group changed the face of American music while influencing new generations of rappers to spread their message unfiltered and authentic.
Straight Outta Compton opens with Eazy- E (Jason Mitchell) being on the wrong end of a drug deal and narrowly escaping being arrested. The film then shifts to Dr. Dre (Corey Hawkins) , Ice Cube( O’Shea Jackson Jr,) , MC Ren (Aldis Hodge), and DJ Yella (Neil Brown Jr.) who are all talented in their own right and are looking to bring a new level of reality to rap music. Eazy -E comes to the aid of Dr. Dre and helps to bail him out from a incident with the police; Dre persuades Eazy-E to leave the drug game and invest his money into a group and a record label. Eazy-E records a song called “Boyz N The Hood” which gets the attention of a famous record manager named Jerry Heller (Paul Giamatti). Jerry is willing to do something drastic and different from the rock and pop acts he is used to managing and sings N.W.A to a deal which leads to the changing of African American culture and rap music.
It is a shame that none of the great actors working on this movie got any recognition from the Golden Globes and the Oscars: The cast and acting is the high point of this movie. Jason Mitchell is a tour de force as he makes his character charming, likable, and someone we grow to care for throughout the movie. O’Shea Jackson was the best choice bar none to play Ice Cube; it also helps that he sounds and looks exactly just like his farther. Hawkins brings the right personality and confidence to be great as Dr. Dre; the real life members of N.W.A (sans Eazy-E) should be pleased with how they were represented on the big screen.
The script is interesting from the point of view in how it shows the positives and equally the negatives of all the members of N.W.A; every member are not shown as being angels but they are genuinely shown to be like any human who can possess a good and bad side. Music biopics or biographies of any human figure can be very problematic because some directors will like to show only all of the positive things that a certain person or group did and that shortchanges the audience from seeing the true story of famous figures. Straight Outta Compton doesn't suffer from this problem which is noteworthy given that two members (Ice Cube and Dr. Dre) served as executive producers of this film. There are a lot funny moments which balance well with the dramatic moments of the story; the only complaint i have is that the movie did not show the backlash and reaction to NWA’s lyrical matter about women and the glorification of drugs and violence in their later musical outputs.
The film pops out of the screen with vibrant colors and cinematography showcasing the beauty of California. Lovers of the 80's and early 1990's will love how this film accurately represents the clothing, soundtrack, and pop culture of the time. The themes of brotherhood, perseverance, and inspiration are something that audiences and young viewers can use to serve to achieve their own goals and make their mark in society. Musical performances are visceral and will make you sing a long and bob your head up and down if you are a fan of N.W.A or rap music.
Straight Outta Compton is a amazing movie that sets the level high for any future music biopic to be on the same level or surpass it any area. This is one of the best movies i have seen in a few years and i would recommend it to any person who has any love for filmmaking.
Final Rating: 9.6 out of 10.0
