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Chronically Cubed and Cured

A Film review of Straight Outta Compton

Biopic films can sometimes be a difficult sell to studios and audiences because some can get too focused on heavy-handed performances and dramatic historical recreations.  They also tend to move awfully slow and get a bit chatty as most individuals selected for this sort of Hollywood treatment aren’t exactly James Bond types.  Straight Outta Compton is a film that plays like a biopic, but never loses sight of maintaining a high entertainment value thanks to two important factors.  First, the individuals that comprised the NWA lived real lives that interwove with some of the most signature elements showcased in cinematic crime dramas such as guns, drugs, gangs, money, violence, loyalty, betrayal, ego and unbridled psychosis.  These dangers were as real as they were common to these young men as the audience bears witness to a number of specific incidents involving the main characters that directly explains where they come from, why they feel the way they do and how it all inspired their music.  Second, as seductive as all of the aforementioned vices may be on the fictional screen, they all constitute secondary window dressing to the music of NWA.  With a multitude of scenes that use original recordings, the energy of some of NWA’s slickest tracks keeps the audience engaged with aggressive beats and defiant lyrics.

“Art reflecting life” was clearly the name of the game for this expertly casted, performed, directed and produced example of cinema.  However, the audience should be made well aware that this film prizes the concept of legacy above all else so expect a lot of pulled punches when the mirror is held not-so-directly upon the individuals of NWA; specifically Dr. Dre.  Ice Cube and Dr. Dre were at the epicenter of this film’s production staff as their firsthand accounts, attention to detail and mentoring of the young actors portraying their past selves certainly enhanced the overall quality of the film.  But, director F. Gary Gary is boys with Cube and Dre having directed Friday (1995) as well as music videos for both and he certainly protects everyone that has the most to lose about revisiting parts of the past deemed too brutal for general audiences.  Perhaps this is the reason why John Singleton (Boyz ‘n the Hood, Higher Learning) wasn’t tapped to direct this film because his style would demand showing at least some aspect of Dre’s admitted violence against women to raise the stakes and the drama.  To suggest that this movie presents a revisionist’s history concerning NWA’s individuals is the understatement of the century. 

Be that as it may, I must remind the reader that this biopic is still a work of fiction and (as with The Imitation Game) is not a documentary designed to expose fact.  Straight Outta Compton is a drama rooted in a popular corner of the music business culture, but electrified by uncommonly refined performances by a raw cast of relative unknowns.  Even putting aside the fact that most of these young men are the spitting image of which they portray (especially Marcc Rose as Tupac in a short scene where I’m certain necromancy was involved in its creation), the sincerity and visceral execution of the cast’s performance makes this movie Oscar worthy.  The audience feels the frustration, the ambivalence, the defiance and the ascendancy.  I would be shocked if Jason Mitchell as Eazy-E doesn’t at least get a nomination for best male lead or best supporting performance from the Academy.

[Note: the MPS rating system is still in full effect, but as it is a system designed around fairness, its modular nature allows for the non-application of categories not relevant to the production: in this case, digital effects]

“Moving” = 27/33

“Picture” = 19/27

“Story” = 22/34

Overall MPS Rating:  68/94 or 72%

Approaching this movie as any sort of inside track on the “real” happenings of the NWA would be a mistake because the propaganda of the film conflicts with police reports of reality.  The better mindset would be simply sitting down to be entertained by a screen story inspired by true events.  It is one heck of an entertaining tale that strikes a great balance between poignant drama and lyric action with a dash of laugh-out-loud comedic beats, but viewer be forewarned; this is a very male centric film.  It depicts women as eye candy set pieces and obstacles to productivity, so this may not be the best movie to plan a date night around.  Despite all the legitimate criticism this production deserves, it would be a crime to dismiss the excellent performances displayed by the entire cast.  Gritty, gutsy and as true to life as the public personas they presented to the world is the least that can be said of all the actors fortunate enough to be a part of this film.  As the fall approaches, so too does the Hollywood award season and I consider Straight Outta Compton as an early contender for some Oscar gold; that is of course, if Dre and Cube are willing to play a bit more Hollywood politics to get in that race.