Straight Outta Compton (2015, R)

I’ll admit it.  I could have seen this one in theaters – it was at my local cinema for quite a while, during the summer when I had plenty of time to see movies – and I chickened out.  Even though I’ve seen other Black-themed movies in theaters, this one seemed more personal somehow, like I’d be intruding if I went to see it (dumb, right?)  Anyway, Netflix made me pay for my foolishness by sitting on the DVD for a month before they started sending it out, and I just finished watching it.

The film follows the story of the rap group N.W.A., with the strongest focus on members Ice Cube, Dr. Dre, and Eazy-E.  The guys get together in the late ‘80s with a vision of “reality” rap that tells how life really is for young Black men in the streets of Compton, California.  Their music is as popular as it is incendiary, and the group soon finds itself coming up against pressures from without (charges that their lyrics are immoral, irresponsible, and even criminal) and within (the conflicts that always seem to arise with money and fame.)

In some ways, the movie is very much a classic musical biopic.  As with any such picture worth its salt, great emphasis is placed on the cast and how well they capture the real-life musicians they’re portraying.  Now, I could tell you shockingly little about that, since I went into the film knowing shockingly little about N.W.A., but everything I’ve heard suggests that Jason Mitchell (Eazy-E,) Corey Hawkins (Dr. Dre,) and O’Shea Jackson Jr. (Ice Cube – Jackson is Ice Cube’s actual son and spitting image) are all spot-on.  I can tell you that these actors are hugely engaging, their rapping sounds great, and their performances easily carried me through the two-and-a-half-hour runtime; at one point, I thought that the group seemed to be finding big success too fast, only to realize that I was already a third of the way into the movie. 

The script hits a lot of musical-biopic hallmarks as well.  There’s the unlikely rise to fame, the “in it for the music” early devotion, the large living, the contract disputes, the inevitable rifts and falling-outs, the rock bottoms, and the comebacks.  However, Straight Outta Compton sets itself apart in the genre as well.  The screenwriters, who snagged the film’s only Oscar nod, have great material to work with in N.W.A.’s story.  Pushback over the group’s lyrics and themes leads to stranger-than-fiction moments like a warning letter from the FBI over their song “Fuck the Police,” and when the guys begin to fall out, it isn’t just behind-the-scenes drama playing out in the tabloids – it plays out in rap battles, with escalating disses in dueling albums.  Additionally, the powerful backdrop of police violence in LA, coming to a head in the Rodney King trial and the LA riots, starkly represents how much we still need change. 

All in all, an incredibly solid film with an excellent cast that tells its story well.  From what I hear, it definitely hits home for late-80s/early-90s hip-hop fans, but it’s still very accessible to someone uninitiated like me.  Remind me again why it isn’t this year’s Walk the Line at the Oscars?

Warnings

Tons of language (including numerous N-words and explicit sexual references,) sexual content (including sex scenes and nudity,) violence, drinking/drug use, and thematic elements.