Straight Outta Compton Review

Straight Outta Compton tells the story of iconic hip-hop group N.W.A, who pioneered the gangsta rap music of the mid 80’s and early 90’s. Set amongst the backdrop of police violence and the downtrodden African-American youth, director F. Gary Gray mixes archive news footage of key events, such as the Rodney King beating and LA Riots, to transport us back to this era. Throw in raucous concerts, party girls, inevitable fall-outs, financial losses and a dodgy manager and you’ve got an entertaining spotlight on a historical musical group.

The film has chosen to focus on three of the N.W.A members: Eazy E, Dr Dre and Ice Cube. Their pre-N.W.A lives give a dramatic introduction to Eric Wright, aka Eazy-E, as a streetwise drug dealer caught up in a police raid on a crack house. Then we meet and a young Andre aka Dr Dre as a struggling DJ and Ice Cube writing rhymes on a school bus while being inspired by his surroundings,

Sadly parts of the film are hindered by some cheesy dialogue trying to move the story along, but it ends up feeling false and out of place ultimately meaning these scenes lose authenticity. Parts of the film also looked a little too crisp resulting in it sometimes looking a bit like a Lifetime TV movie. Straight Outta Compton shines the most when the group are recording, having banter and performing on stage.Obviously the live concert sequences are the heart and soul and they go all out in recreating these classic gigs.

The lesser known members Yella and MC Ren are somewhat over-looked, probably due to the film being produced by Dr Dre, Ice Cube and Eazy E’s widow. This is a pity as MC Ren deserves more screen time as he was as much the back bone of the group as Ice cube.

I found the backdrop of police brutality, Rodney King and the LA riots depressing as things in the US don’t seem to have changed as much as we’d have hoped. One gripe to mention is the lack of family and relationships portrayed within this story. Behind every great man there’s a great woman (or man), right? Well, the love lives of our three protagonists get little attention and much has been said of Dr Dre’s past violent treatment of women being ignored.

The cast is excellent and these doppelgängers help ensure that this is an entertaining portrayal of rap heroes. Even the guy who plays 2 Pac is a scary lookalike, no wonder people think he’s still alive and working in Countdown with Elvis just outside Palmerston North.

Totally on point is Ice Cube’s real life son O’Shea Jackson, Jr. playing the moodiest member of the group. Corey Hawkins plays a young Dr Dre, but Jason Mitchell’s performance as Eazy-E really steals the show. Some of the best scenes of the film take place between Jason Mitchell as Easy E and the ever watchable Paul Giamatti who plays greedy music manager Jerry Heller.

As fans, we don’t think Straight Outta Compton is quite the film it could have been.That said even with some cheesy dialogue the film does work  and strikes an emotional chord that the music itself was written to do.

It’s already won the U.S. box office and fans of this iconic group, new and old will no doubt flock to get a taste of what this exciting group was really like back in the day.  An entertaining, but slightly flawed biopic, where the music is the real star.

Straight Outta Compton is out in NZ cinemas now.

Reviewed by Ian Wright and Ingrid Grenar.

3.5 stars small

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