[projekktor id=’20427′]
Straight Outta Compton delivers a humanizing origin story of the young artists who would go on to become legends of hip hop music. While it checks off the boxes of any self-respecting musical biopic, and does a great service to the music itself, the film’s most unexpected achievement is its nuanced portraits of the artists behind such nuance-less classics as “F*** The Police”.
At two and a half hours, the film is an epic retelling of the rise and fall of one of the world’s first gangster rap groups, N.W.A. It tracks the first five years in the careers of group founders Dr. Dre (Corey Hawkins), Eazy-E (Jason Mitchell) and Ice Cube (O’Shea Jackson Jr.), from the dangerous streets of Compton to their meteoric rise into hip hop superstardom. The men are aided on their journey by notorious musical figures such as Jerry Heller (Paul Giamatti) and Suge Knight (R. Marcos Taylor), and other rap legends like Snoop Dawg (Keith Stansfield) and Tupac (Marcc Rose) also make brief appearances.
The sprawling story is filled with all the drama and infighting you’d expect (especially if you know your music history), but plenty of humour as well thanks to a sprightly screenplay by Jonathon Herman and Andrea Bergoff. The young cast produce vivid and believable portraits of the men and tear into the snappy dialogue and incendiary lyrics with equal aplomb. Jason Mitchell as Eazy-E is the standout, but his character also has the most emotional arc. O’Shea Jackson Jr. portrays his father in the film, which is why he looks so much like him (just in case you were praising the brilliant casting like I was after the first trailer).
The film is produced by Ice Cube and Dr. Dre who have simply done what they know best; they’ve released a bad ass, self-aggrandizing piece of work about their own lives. And while that takes a certain lack of self-consciousness to pull off, it’s not all flattering. The film is surprisingly honest and while I’m sure a hip hop historian would be able to list some notable omissions from the narrative, overall it’s a warts-and-all depiction of five naive men thrust into the overwhelming world of celebrity at a young age.
At its core, the film is about how people and their relationships can morph and change when exposed to the great pressures of wealth and fame. The juxtaposition between the wild parties of the film’s first half and the quiet domestic poolsides of its second truly make you feel like you’ve gone on a journey with these characters. In addition, it’s a worthy ode to a rap group that completely changed the musical landscape and brought hip hop into the public consciousness. Rap finally has a worthy addition to the musical biopic genre, even if the authorities might disapprove.
Reviewed by Evan Arppe.
