Review of Straight Outta Compton (2015) by Tom T — 03 Feb 2016

Of all the true-story movies 2015 threw at as, this one is definitely the best. I'm not even saying that as a fan of N.W.A. or their story, I'm just saying that as a fan of great movies and this is a great movie.

I am only a casual fan of the gangsta rap genre, and before seeing this film was only vaguely familiar with N.W.A. and their story, but it sucked me in right from the get-go. I'm a white guy who grew up in the country, N.

W.A. came from a world I am very much not a part of, but within the first five minutes the movie sucks you into that world and lets you understand how a group like this might come to be. When you see their experiences with the cops, you completely empathize with them and understand how a song like "F*** The Police" would be written.

The movie works as a rags-to-riches story, a concert film, a street-life film, and a biopic all in equal measures. It never felt like it was going through the motions of the story either, it felt like a solid flowing narrative that I was thoroughly invested in.

All the performances are great as well, how accurate they are to the actual people I have no idea, but as performers they're all solid. They're mostly unknowns too, with the exception of Paul Giamatti, but they all do a great job.

I loved the music, I loved the story, I loved the people, I loved the directing, I just loved this movie. I didn't go in expecting too much but I was completely blown away by how invested in it I became.

At the end of its nearly two-and-a-half hour runtime I only wanted more, and as a person with a pretty short attention span that's a helluva' compliment.