Straight Outta Compton
Director: F. Gary Gray
Writers: Jonathan Herman and Andrea Berloff (Story by S. Leigh Savidge, Alan Wenkus and Andrea Berloff)
147 Minutes - Rated R
Biopics can be one of the
trickiest genres to pull off successfully.
Besides trying to make a life story fit a satisfying narrative, there is
also the question of how much of a person’s life to cover and the balancing act
of how much to emphasize their importance while not canonizing them. F. Gary Gray’s Straight Outta Compton faces that challenge and adds the extra
layer of difficulty of having to do that with three people, Eazy-E (played in
the film by Jason Mitchell), Ice Cube (O’Shea Jackson Jr., Ice Cube’s son in
real life) and Dr. Dre (Corey Hawkins), as we follow their rise through the
influential and controversial rap group NWA.
As seen in the film’s impressive box office and critical praise, the
film has been a shot of life into the biopic genre and rightfully so. While it doesn’t quite overcome some of the
problems with biopics, it succeeds more than enough elsewhere to make up for
it.
Although some people will likely
object to the language, nudity and violence, the film’s structure is classic
for the genre, despite being split three ways.
The band goes from humble beginnings in Compton, whose gang activity,
drugs and police hostility inspire their music.
It catches the ear of Jerry Heller (Paul Giamatti), a manager of acts
from the 70s who couldn’t be further removed from NWA. Their “reality rap” (which the media later
dubs “gangsta rap”) strikes a chord and makes them famous, garnering headlines
and protest for their explicit content.
Then we see the cost of fame, as Heller takes E under his wing and leads
to the group fracturing. Cube and Dre
eventually go solo, only for Dre to find himself in a lion’s den with the
notorious Suge Knight (R. Marcus Taylor).
Really, any of the three leads could’ve
been the subject of their own movie, and maybe that’s where some of the film’s
shortcomings step in. Even with the 147
minute run time, there is a lot to cram in with three leads and two antagonists
and while luckily the film doesn’t come off as overstuffed and bloated,
sometimes things get lost. I have to
imagine there are a lot of deleted scenes and stuff that never made it out of
the screenplay (needless to say, I’d be very interested in a director’s
cut). Also, certain elements of their
story are addressed so quickly, like Dre’s brother and another member’s
spiritual side, that their impacts are diminished. However, the problem of wanting to see more
is still a good problem for a film to have.
Of course the soundtrack, filled
with 80s and 90s classic rap, is great to hear on a movie theater sound
system. While some of the sexist and
homophobic content is a little uncomfortable to hear, the music has by and
large aged very well. The film also
makes a point of showing craftsmanship to the music, a problem many music
biopics have. We see them often struggle
to figure out the perfect beat or vocal delivery for their music and while they
still come up with stuff quickly, it’s nice to see them treat the art as
something that doesn’t just come out fully formed every time. The casting also really works. Giamatti is great as expected, showing Heller
as a man who has a father/son type bond with E, but isn’t always the greatest
father figure. The guys playing NWA were
also impressive. Certainly Jackson
looking like his dad, not to mention the similarities between the rest of the
cast, helps, but they also have the chops to pull it off.
Like last year’s Selma, Compton also is relevant for its commentary on police in the
African American community. Throughout
the film we see various NWA members get harassed by the cops, often to the
point of excess, and Rodney King and the LA riots feature prominently in the
second part of the film. Compton is an effective viewing glass
for those of us who never lived in a place like Compton to see why a song like
“F*** tha Police” was created. Like any
piece of art, it represents the world it was created in and the artists molded
by it.
Compton proves to be one of the better biopics in recent years for
its ambitious, if slightly unwieldy, scope, great casting and still relevant
social commentary, things that overcome the flaws that affect biopics. Besides being endorsed by the surviving
members of NWA (even though DJ Yella and MC Ren are sidelined for most of the
film), Compton is made by people who
are passionate for the material, and that vibrancy is clear throughout.
Grade: B+
Observations (Spoilers):
-Apparently there was a cut that
was a full hour longer. That is
something I definitely hope becomes available somehow.
-For the epilogue, I liked them
not doing the typical text describing what happened to the various people in
the film afterward, although it focused almost entirely on Dre and Cube (not
that I can blame them).
No comments:
Post a Comment