Lost Review: Straight Outta Compton

This isn't necessarily a "lost" review of sorts. I went to go see this film late last year when it was in the cinemas and sadly never got a chance to review it. I recently caught it on HBO and decided to give it a proper review.

Music.

It's good stuff. Most of the best music in history comes from the heart of a troubled soul who just wants to rise up and give shit to whatever authority has been giving them shit, and there's no better example than gangsta rap in the late 80s/early 90s...most primarily, the N.W.A. These guys spoke truth beyond and inspired a whole generation, though it's a shame to say that the current population is dealing with half the same shit that they were dealing with then. But that's another topic for another blog, this is a blog for movies of course, and that's what I'm here to talk about.

When it was announced that Straight Outta Compton, a biopic about N.W.A. was being made, I had a fair share of skepticism. Normally, music star biopics can go one way or another. Compare the likes of Amadeus to Mark Wahlberg's mundane vehicle Rock Star and you'll see how hit and miss this shit can be. But then some details started being released, such as Dr. Dre and Ice Cube's involvement, Friday director F. Gary Gray's sign on, and it all started becoming clearer, and then the trailers dropped and I realized just how good this could possibly be. Then it came out, and the reviews were as positive as ever.

The movie of course follows the N.W.A., with members Ice Cube (O'Shea Jackson, Jr), Eazy-E (Jason Mitchell), Dr. Dre (Corey Hawkins), MC Ren (Aldis Hodge), and DJ Yella (Neil Brown Jr.) forming the group for a number of reasons, mostly to get their word out about their lives and the numerous amounts of police violence. The plot follows the group as they go from relative unknown to worldwide hit, and then straight back down as they split up and deal with the tragedies that come with fame and the record business.

So what gives the beat to this biopic? The movie is damn good, that's for sure. It's got an A+ screenplay and general direction, with clever dialogue where it's needed, and a general sense of reality to what's going on on the screen. F. Gary Gray's work behind the camera and general progress since the days of Friday show, giving us the deep and thoughtful magic that made me love his Italian Job remake so much.

Big props also land to the cast, as most of the men look almost exactly like their film counterparts (bonus points to casting Ice Cube's actual son as Ice Cube in the film), and all give spectacular performances that show a real nice edge between happiness within the group one moment, to roughness, anger, betrayal, and revenge the next second. And the best part? All of this is mostly reflected through the words and the raps, which brings me to the score. It's no surprise that the score to a movie about N.W.A. would be good, but I'm still putting it out there. It's good shit.

However with every good movie there's still a few faults, and I only have a few to point out here. Apparently some aspects of it aren't all that true, according to some of the characters depicted. Some things were switched around and some things were just omitted. But I can't dispute that from the film and I can't say that I didn't enjoy it for those reasons, because, honestly, what biopic doesn't that a creative license with reality these days?

Even with all that, Straight Outta Compton is a definite hit, a definite gold mine that sheds some light on what a lot of people don't want to see sometimes, and because of that, Straight Outta Compton gets an 8.6 stars out of 10. Really good stuff that should have gotten more awards nods than it did, but I digress.