Straight Outta Compton
Straight Outta Compton (2015)
In Theaters: Aug 14, 2015 Wide
Runtime: 2 hr. 27 min.
Rating:
violence, drug use, pervasive profanity and ethnic slurs, graphic sexuality
and frontal nudity
Genre: Drama
Directed By: F. Gary Gray
Written By: Jonathan Herman, Andrea Berloff
Distributor: Universal
Pictures
Good (★★☆☆)
Film Review by Kam Williams
Back in the Eighties, the CIA began orchestrating the introduction of
crack-cocaine to African-American communities all across America, starting
with the South Central L.A. By the middle of the decade, the epidemic had
turned Compton into a godforsaken wasteland rife with drug addiction and
crime.
Thus, it should come as no surprise that when a young Ice
Cube (O’Shea Jackson, Jr.) teamed up with MC Ren (Aldis Hodge) to write
songs, they’d reflect the reality of what they’d witnessed growing up in the
’hood. In 1988, together with Dr. Dre (Corey Hawkins), Eazy E (Jason
Mitchell) and DJ Yella (Neil Brown, Jr.), they released “Straight Outta
Compton,” the debut album of N.W.A., aka Niggaz with Attitudes.
The
controversial group pioneered a seminal sub-genre of rap revolving around
black-on-black violence, misogyny and police brutality. While detractors
criticized their glorification of ghetto dysfunction, proponents countered
that N.W.A. was merely telling it like it is.
Despite that first CD’s
going double platinum, Cube soon departed to embark on a solo career,
ostensibly after being ripped off by their manager, Jerry Heller (Paul
Giamatti). In fact, he subsequently threatened to “put a bullet to his
temple” in a tune where he also suggested his former bandmates “get rid of
that devil” because they couldn’t be gangstas “with a white Jew tellin’ you
what to do.” Meanwhile, his abandoned homeys promised Cube via lyrics that
they would “f*ck you with a broomstick.”
Ironically, they would all
eventually wise up and come around to agree with Cube, most notably, Dre,
who finally left Ruthless Records in 1991 to sign with his bodyguard Suge
Knight’s (R. Marcus Taylor) new label, Death Row Records. Eazy E would
remain loyal to Heller the longest, leaving not long before he died of AIDS
at just 31 years-of age.
All of the above is recounted in vivid
fashion in Straight Outta Compton, a gritty raptrospective that unfolds like
an extended episode of VH1’s Behind the Music. Directed by F. Gary Gray (Law
Abiding Citizen), the film does seem to be celebrating the sort of depraved
behavior that might lead to an early death.
For, between off-stage
and concert performances of N.W.A. hits. we’re basically being treated to
such sights of these hedonistic pop stars as “drowning in pussy” in a hotel
room littered with groupies, settling their differences with adversaries at
gunpoint, and being arrested after ignoring orders by the authorities to
stop performing the incendiary F*ck the Police.“
The cinematic
equivalent of a nostalgic fanzine designed with die-hard devotees of
gangsta’ rap in mind.