Review of Roxanne Roxanne (2017) by Brian M — 25 Mar 2018

I love hip-hop history, but very few films ever get it right, with the exception of Wild Style, Style Wars, and Beat Street, no other film captured the hip-hop scenes.

And unfortunately, Roxanne Roxanne didn't break the said trio's legacy. Just didn't feel like they were living in the times of 80s from the clothes to the hairdos.

The lead girl was actually pretty good, but the directing wasn't very good. It was hard to figure out where they were sometimes and what they are doing and why. There was a failure by the writer to establish a good relationship. And the music was all off. 70s music when it was supposed to take place in the 80s. There was just a constant confusing as what time era we were in. Sometimes it felt the 80s, but then the music felt 70s and vice versa. The wrong wardrobes, which must have been done by people that didn't know the times, like the oversizes Adidas tracksuits and pulled down Kangol hats. All wrong.

Too many close-ups. Maybe they were trying to avoid the 2000s scenery. There were also too many characters, which made it hard to follow.

The movie was just poorly executed and was way too many scenes that were supposed to create an emotional connection were either forced or rushed or both.

It's like this film was written and directed by someone that wasn't there at the time or just too young to have known the times the film takes place and then just adding a few words here and there they got from a Hip Hop lexicon. I.e. they read a hip-hop history book and then imagined what it was like. I was right after watching this.

Just sad the subject matter wasn't handled properly. It could have been a great story if done right. Just too many things weren't believable. There was too much unnecessary resistance.