by Ed Travis
Coming out of the gate swinging, director F. Gary Gray kicks off Straight Outta Compton with a frenetic drug deal gone awry, featuring Eric “Eazy-E” Wright (Jason Mitchell in a breakout performance) escaping through a window and over the rooftops before a police battering ram tears apart a home in mid-1980s Compton, California. It is a fantastic opening, conveying an energy and raw immediacy that will carry through much, if not all, of the film.
There couldn’t be a more perfect time for a more perfect subject matter than Straight Outta Compton’s August 2015 release. One almost can’t believe a biopic about seminal rap super group N.W.A. hasn’t already been made. But when considering the current climate of clashes between law enforcement and the African American community, as well as the continued ascendancy of hip hop as the dominant musical form of the globe, not to mention a renewed interest on Hollywood’s part of telling mainstream stories that feature non-White characters… Straight Outta Compton feels downright prescient, and you realize that now is exactly when this film was meant to be.
Immensely crowd pleasing, impeccably cast, visually arresting, stylishly shot, and stuffed to the gills with riotously excellent musical queues, it is easy to fall in love with Straight Outta Compton. These are the heroes of a generation that generally doesn’t have biopics being made about them just yet. Perhaps the very fact that a retrospective biopic is being made about the likes of Ice Cube (here played by Cube’s real life son O’Shea Jackson, Jr.), Dr. Dre (Corey Hawkins), and Eazy-E belies a certain tameness that the surviving members of N.W.A. have settled into. But the raw talent, anger, and intelligence of this group is captured in a pulse-pounding way in the film, to such a degree that it almost restores the danger to these now-beloved and largely mainstream talents.
Straight Outta Compton isn’t a film that transcends its genre. Riddled with biopic cliches and tropes, potentially overlong, and certainly uneven in spots (not to mention produced by its real-life subjects, which always strains credulity to a degree); this isn’t an “awards” film. But what it occasionally lacks in originality and subtlety it overwhelmingly makes up for in cinematic excitement, arresting drama, and a genuinely riveting story of some of the coolest and most dangerous musicians of our lifetime. N.W.A.’s rise in the first half of the film is pure joy to behold. The actors portraying our three lead characters quickly disappear into their roles. And we like these guys. We wish we could be more like them; as talented or as honest or as raw. We also empathize with them as they, and presumably everyone in their community, are routinely harassed and brutalized by a police force that clearly sees them as the enemy. Whole scenes seem to be constructed to introduce us to figures such as Snoop Dogg or Tupac, who are never featured again and contribute next to nothing dramatically. But their presence gives us a chance to nod our head as Dr. Dre creates musical magic for these famed MCs to rhyme over. And while the second half of the film isn’t as tight and energetic as the first half, don’t let anyone try to convince you that there isn’t potent drama or relevant issues to be found on the back half, even if you know the real story. Straight Outta Compton succeeds wildly at making you feel as though you are there, witnessing musical history right alongside the defiant young men who were at the forefront of supplanting rock and roll as the dominant musical force.
This is populist cinema and I wouldn’t be surprised if it absolutely explodes. There’s never been a better time to raise a middle finger to the establishment the way N.W.A. did than right now. There’s never been a better time to be reminded of some of the greatest and most hardcore reality rap that’s ever dropped than right now. There’s never been a better time for films starring black people and produced and directed by them to break through into the increasingly diverse mainstream than right now. Straight Outta Compton tells a story about the rise and conflicts of a 1980s & 90s hip hop group that feels somehow prophetic in 2015, and if you don’t leave the theater with your head nodding to the beat, then you’ve probably never nodded your head to a beat.
And I’m Out.
