Energetic and informative.
Straight Outta Compton
Grade: B+
Director: F. Gary Gray (The Italian Job)
Screenplay: Jonathan Herman, Andrea Berloff (World Trade Center)
Cast: O’Shea Jackson, Jr. (Conan), Corey Hawkins (Romeo and Juliet)
Rating: R
Runtime: 147 min
by John DeSando
"I can make you legit." Jerry Heller (Paul Giamatti)
So he does make the gangsta rappers legit and wealthy and famous. Straight Outta Compton is a chronology of the hip-hop movement from unknown songs about LAPD oppression of black youths to big- business music, whose money makes for distorted friendships and cut-throat tactics. N.A.W. (Niggaz with Attitude) grew universally popular, similar to the Beatles, so fast as to be almost unbelievable.
It’s all in the lyrics. For some of us not versed in the vernacular and history of rap, this biopic is helpful putting the history together. Less helpful than that is the film’s depiction of how the powerful lines were formed. Only a few shots of Ice Cube’s (O’Shea Jackson Jr.) notebooks give you an idea of the process. The irony of Cube’s creating his famous anthem, Fuck Tha Police, after several abusive run-ins with LAPD does help me see origins.
But then, I am always disappointed that these musical biopics don’t give enough insight into the creative process of its artists. Maybe that’s an impossible task.
However, I should say the sequence involving Dr. Dre (Corey Hawkins) coaxing out a performance from Eazy-E (Jason Mitchell) of his groundbreaking hit, “boyz n the hood,” is instructive and humorous. As bad a boy as Dre might have been, his stewardship of the rappers is clearly fundamental to their success. I would have liked more imagining of these crucial creative moments.
Not to say, however, the film slights the influence of such moguls as Suge Knight (R. Marcus Taylor), who built the success of Death Row on the backs of Tupac Shakur and Snoop Dog, too many times with violence a main ingredient.
The film, to its detriment, downplays the importance of their crime glorification and misogynist themes (tossing a naked woman into the hallway and locking the door behind her!). The absence of the competition such as De La Soul, Public Enemy, and Eminem is lamentable. Then, what could be expected from two of the film’s producers, Ice Cube and Dr. Dre?
Straight Outta Compton is an energetic, informative take on a musical movement in the USA that rocked the world.
“Nothing wrong with being from the hood. But I’d rather my kids be visitors than residents.” Ice Cube
John DeSando, a Los Angeles Press Club first-place winner for National Entertainment Journalism, hosts WCBE’s It’s Movie Time and co-hosts Cinema Classics. Contact him at JDeSando@Columbus.rr.com
