Review of Straight Outta Compton (2015) by Earl C — 04 Jul 2017

This is a really good film, and you don't have to be fan of N.W.A. or even rap music to enjoy it. It's well directed and extremely well-acted by all the players (most of the buzz is about O'Shea Jackson, Jr.

's performance as Ice Cube, but for me, the standout performance was Corey Hawkins as Dr. Dre... he stole every scene he was in). Being raised in an almost exclusively white Midwestern town, I was pretty sheltered from late 80's/early 90's West Coast rap.

I knew that Ice Cube and Dr. Dre both went on to have wildly successful careers, but I had no idea how influential N.W.A. really was, both musically and culturally. All I knew about them was that they were a "ganster rap" group, and that, as was strongly impressed upon me, their lyrics were offensive and dangerous and I should definitely not listen to them.

Now I'm ashamed that I ever believed that. These guys were saying in 1988 what nearly everyone is saying now... only now, we say #blacklivesmatter; then, it was "Fuck Tha Police". But it's the same issue: people in powerful positions abusing that power over disenfranchised people.

Thirty years later, it's the same. Except that back then, the gangster rappers were some of the only people openly objecting to this state of affairs... and we called them dangerous. *SMH* Anyway, cinematically, I very impressed with both the movie's content as well as how well it's filmed.

It grabs your attention immediately, and then holds it. The film puts everything that was going on at the time in perspective and shows you a broader look at the social/cultural/racial issues that propelled both the creation and the success of gangster rap.

My only criticism is that it chronicled too much of the history. Only the first half of the film is dedicated to N.W.A.; the rest is about what the groups' members did after they split up... and it goes on a bit too long.

Yeah, we know that Dre went on to be a hugely successful producer, and that he worked with Snoop and Tupac. We know that Ice Cube went on to be a successful solo rapper as well as an actor. We didn't need to see that part, and I wish the film had focused more on how the group got together and created the music they did.

As it is, that part is mostly glossed over. Overall, this is a very entertaining, educational, and timely movie, and it's important to see it. I don't know that it was worthy of a Best Picture nomination, but it was certainly better than some of the films that were nominated.