Movie Review: Straight Outta Compton

There are few names in the world of hip-hop that hold as much as weight N.W.A.(short for Niggaz with Attitudes). The formative years of hip-hop in the early-to-mid 80's were dominated by innocent, fun-loving groups like Run D.M.C and the Beastie Boys until N.W.A shook up the rap game with their 1988 album Straight Outta Compton. N.W.A's combination of in-your-face anger and brutally honest lyrics about the problems they faced in their hometown of Compton, California struck a chord with audiences and made them overnight sensations. Despite only being active from 1986-1991, N.W.A left a permanent mark on the genre and has heavily influenced a number of the biggest hip-hop stars of today including Eminem and Kendrick Lamar. The story of the hip-hop legends rise and fall has finally headed to the big screen with Straight Outta Compton, a film that's every bit as brilliant and exhilarating as the album that it takes its name from.  

Straight Outta Compton deserves a lot of credit for how it goes about tackling the story of N.W.A. The rise and fall of N.W.A has enough complexity and drama to fill a Ken Burns-style epic mini-series, but screenwriters Jonathan Herman and Andrea Barloff and director F. Gary Gray are able to create a linear narrative full of drastic time jumps that never feels underdeveloped or choppy in the slightest. The film throws out a ton of dense subplots (the harassment they faced from the police, the bad business deals that led to their breakup, Eazy E's AIDS diagnosis and death) over its nearly 150-minute runtime and fleshes each of them out to the fullest extent  After watching other recent biopics like Get On Up and The Theory of Everything get dragged down by their inability to explore their subject's sprawling careers with any type of real depth or coherence, it's extremely refreshing that the Herman and Barloff were able to turn N.W.A.'s history into a film with a streamlined and insightful narrative.  

Herman and Barloff's script also offers up a candid look into what made group leaders Ice Cube, Dr. Dre and Eazy-E tick. The film spends a lengthy amount of time analyzing the psyche and character of these men as they went from impoverished inner-city kids to the national spotlight seemingly overnight and the profound effect the disbandment of N.W.A had on their respective careers. Every single one of the group leaders gets a near equal amount of screen time and no one is made out to be an overly good or bad guy, which is surprising considering that Ice Cube, Dr. Dre and Eazy-E's widow, Tomica Woods-Wright, executive produced the film. Hardcore fans will likely (and justifiably) nitpick the downplaying of the feud between Dre and Eazy, the lack of screen time for MC Ren and DJ Yella, and the absence of the widely-publicized 1991 Dee Barnes/Dre incident, but you have to commend the filmmakers for constructing a film that develops its characters so strongly without censoring too many of the damning details.  

While the film is remarkably well-made, the heart and soul of Straight Outta Compton lies in the strength of its acting. When the first publicity shots of the actors in character came out last year, it was remarkable how much they resembled the men they were playing. Thankfully these guys don't just look the part; they are also able to bring the members of N.W.A to life with vivid detail and raw emotion. O'Shea Jackson Jr, Corey Hawkins and Jason Mitchell all give starmaking performances as Ice Cube, Dr. Dre and Eazy-E respectively. Jackson Jr. proves the choice to cast him as his father wasn't an empty gimmick as he fills the role with Ice Cube's intensity and live-wire personality, Hawkins nails Dre's reserved persona, and Mitchell's magnetic and surprisingly nuanced performance makes Eazy-E an emphatic character even at his lowest moments. Hollywood politics will prevent them from getting recognized come award season, but all three of these guys deserve Oscar nod's. They're that good. Straight Outta Compton is a master class in biopic filmmaking that will without question go down as one of the most important and flat-out best films of 2015.

4.5/5 Stars