Review of Straight Outta Compton (2015) by David H — 16 Dec 2015

Given that Kylie Minogue's eponymous debut, Kylie, was released in 1988 a month before N.W.A.'s Straight Outta Compton there really wasn't much chance that the brutal realities of gangsta rap were ever going to be on my radar; that is, until I saw F. Gary Gray's brilliant but flawed film about the boys from Compton.

Despite the anarchistic nature of N.W.A.'s music, Straight Outta Compton is a very conventional rags to riches biopic that attempts to tell the stories of three of the five band members: Dr Dre (Corey Hawkins), Ice Cube (O'Shea Jackson Jr) and Easy-E (Jason Mitchell).

The film opens with an intense sequence when one of Easy-E's drug deals is violently interrupted by an LAPD raid that for a moment feels like something out of Saving Private Ryan. The tone is set for the ongoing police harassment the black community endures and these early scenes are extremely effective in making sense of the frustration that fuels the boys' music and, in particular, songs like Fuck Tha Police.

The boys find success relatively early in the film and from there the narrative relies a little too heavily on their financial and contractual disputes. The boys go their separate ways, living in indistinguishable white mansions, screwing countless women, and the film loses its visceral edge. When Dr Dre teams up with the formidable Suge Knight (R. Marcus Taylor) the narrative reignites somewhat but the vitality of the first act is never recaptured.

Screenwriters Jonathan Herman and Andrea Berloff have bitten off more than they can chew here. The film's point-of-view is split between Dr Dre, Ice Cube and Easy-E. There's no room for any character development of DJ Yella (Neil Brown Jr) and MC Ren (Aldis Hodge) who basically appear in scenes as featured extras.

Once the three principals have split, the story cuts back and forth between them with no overriding narrative engine. The boys from Compton have made it; now what? What question hangs over the drama that keeps us engrossed? If friendship or loyalty is meant to be the glue that binds the dramatic threads, it's not sufficiently established or explored, though it's in this territory where the story finds its resolution.

The lack of character development is probably most stark with the group's dodgy manager Jerry Heller (Paul Giamatti in a shocker of a wig). From his very first encounter with Easy-E we know Jerry's going to do the dirty on them and even though Ice Cube works this out pretty quick and warns the others, it's not until virtually the end of the film that Easy-E gives him the flick.

There's so much more that could've been dramatically mined here. All we know about Jerry is that he's a shonky Jewish manager who seems to live alone in a nice house. We don't know about other/past clients. Is he straight or gay? We don't know how financially dependent he is on the group's success. He appears to develop a genuine bond with Easy-E so why does he treat him with such contempt? Is that bond the reason why Easy-E has been so blind to what is so obvious to the audience? And if so, what does that say about Easy-E's family background or need for approval/love?

The female characters (and I use that term lightly) are mostly treated as the spoils of success who get fucked in a hotel room in front of other people or dance around half naked at trashy pool parties. With the exception of one girl (Felicia, the victim of a cruel gag) the women don't get names until the boys develop 'serious' relationships with them. Early on, Dr Dre's partner (to whom he's displayed no affection) leaves him taking their daughter because she believes he's wasting his time with his music. Once things take off for him, however, he makes no attempt to contact her or see his little girl. Later, we are introduced to his future (and current) wife, Nicole, yet she has no dramatic function in the story. Even Dr Dre's separation from the monstrous Suge Knight reads more like a line from Dre's Wikipedia page than a turning point in a larger story.

The shortcomings of this film are numerous, but I have to admit that Straight Outta Compton nonetheless engrossed me for nearly all of its 147 minutes. As a gangsta rap neophyte I was fascinated by the context in which this genre of music was born and I left the cinema eager to belatedly 'discover' N.W.A.'s music. The concert scenes are electric and you feel as charged as their audience. The police harassment scenes are extremely potent and add further dimension to the infamous Rodney King beating of 1991 that also features here. The recent one-year anniversary of the Michael Brown shooting in Ferguson and the continued rise of the "Black Lives Matter" movement infuse this story with a whole other layer of relevance and unease.

What most grabbed me about this film were the performances. O'Shea Jackson Jr is fantastic playing his real-life father Ice Cube. You totally buy his passion, frustration and the truth of his lyrics. R. Marcus Taylor is truly scary as Suge Knight but it is Jason Mitchell as Easy-E who is the real stand out. Though the role may not be fully developed it requires incredible range of the performer and Mitchell delivers; he is totally engaging and authentic from beginning to end. Let's hope he gets the recognition he deserves come awards season.

For my money, Paul Giamatti walked through his role. There are the occasional outbursts that are effective but for the most part it's Giamatti doing the same schtick we've seen him do again and again and I felt he let the ensemble down.

With Dr Dre, Ice Cube and Easy-E's widow, Tomica Woods-Wright, all producing, it's not surprising that the narrative ended up pulled in three different directions and somewhat sanitised - Dr Dre's brutal physical attack on radio host Dee Barnes is ignored. But ultimately this doesn't matter. The film has contemporary relevance, heaps of energy and paints a picture of a time in America that gave rise to some very gifted and influential musicians. Unlike so many films these days, Straight Outta Compton has something to say and even though it's language may not be as sharp as N.W.A.'s lyrics, it deserves to be heard, seen and celebrated.