Straight Outta Compton Review

Hello :-)

Biopics are an interesting beast. They’ll always have an audience so long as their subject does and, unlike a documentary, they have license to embellish the truth or omit some less than savoury incidents. Most recently I went to see the NWA biopic Straight Outta Compton.

Straight Outta Compton is the story of the formation of and subsequent demise of NWA in the late 80’s/early 90’s. With the combined forces of Eazy-E (Jason Mitchell), Dr Dre (Corey Hawkins), Ice Cube (played by Ice Cube’s real life son, O’Shea Jackson Jr) and the management of Jerry Heller (Paul Giamatti), the collective soon achieve fame and notoriety across the US.

I’m fairly familiar with the goings on of NWA, even so I was surprised by just how much was packed into the 10 year span of the film. So much ground is covered there’s very little time to go into detail about anything meaning Straight Outta Compton feels more like an abridged revision guide rather than a comprehensive study, nonetheless it is highly entertaining.

The film is clearly divisible into three acts, all of which vary in quality. The first chronicles the formation, recording of the titular album and the band going on tour; this is where the film is at its finest. The scene setting of life in late 80’s Compton is really effective and the pervasive subjugation of African American communities is more than a little resonant in light of recent events in the US. An encounter with the LAPD prompting Ice Cube to pen the infamous protest song Fuck tha Police and the unsanctioned performance of the song at a gig in Detroit carry the illicit thrill of defiance coupled with shots of hotel room parties and the band mucking about in the recording studio makes for some wonderful stuff. It’s so difficult to capture the joy of music on screen and make it feel authentic but this first section does just that.

The second act of the film, post-Ice Cube’s departure from NWA, is where things shift down a gear. The focus moves from the music to contract disputes and bitterness at members leaving the band. There are some moments that recapture some of that first act energy, most of which feature Jackson Jr’s Ice Cube; the recording of the blistering diss track No Vaseline and the scene where Cube takes a baseball bat to one of the offices of Priority Records are both pulse raisers but they’re nearly buried in the dull and vague legal back and forth that dominates the middle of the film.

The final section focuses partly on the deterioration of Eazy-E, his tragic diagnosis of AIDs and also on Dr Dre’s increasingly fraught relationship with Suge Knight and Death Row Records. There is an element of Where’s Wally that creeps into this final act when Dr Dre collaborators start popping up like Snoop Dogg and Tupac (Keith Stanfield and Marcc Rose doing great jobs of looking like and, particularly in Stanfield’s case, sounding like, their respective artists) but that fun is brought to a swift end thanks to R. Marcos Taylor’s Suge Knight. He cuts a terrifying shape and his scenes of brutality and intimidation and legitimately hard to watch.

However the bulk of the last act narrative is handed over to the decline of Eazy-E, the scenes of which have been accused of being overly sentimental. I’m not sure when sentimental became a dirty word but I’m not convinced it should be. Jason Mitchell does wonderful work as Eazy-E and there’s nothing wrong with feeling sad when such a well realised character faces such tragedy. There is a palpable sense of regret and loss in these scenes that I think is really well handled.

What’s a little disappointing is how much of a hagiography Straight Outta Compton turns into. The band are never depicted as totally saintly but some of the more pernicious aspects of the group’s history are glossed over or omitted entirely. Even some of the less controversial but more interesting events are left out to make way for more scenes of contract litigation, which is a shame.

It looks brilliantly stylish. I’ve never been a particular fan of F Gary Gray’s work but it's a confidently helmed picture. For the most part Gray balances humour, drama and a good dose of action. It's a credit to him that he's been able to make someone rapping in a recording booth such an engaging thing to watch.

The film’s cast is one of it’s great strengths. Paul Giamatti adds to his repertoire of arsehole music managers with Jerry Heller. He could have played Heller with a striped top, mask and swag bag but his staunch defence of NWA and seemingly genuine appreciation of their music adds real intrigue and WTF-ness to his character’s motives.

DJ Yella, MC Ren and The D.O.C are somewhat side-lined from proceedings but Neil Brown Jr, Aldis Hodge and Marlon Yates Jr all make the most of the screen time they have. The central trio of Hawkins, Mitchell and Jackson are the ones that do the most heavy lifting. The camera loves Corey Hawkins and his performance as Dr Dre has charisma by the bucket load. Aside from looking uncannily like his Father, O’Shea Jackson Jr channels the requisite energy, frustration and creativity of someone who undeniably changed the musical landscape of the late 20th Century.

I am a fan of NWA so I realise that this film was engineered for me to like it but the story is such that Straight Outta Compton could easily be enjoyed by someone who isn’t as well versed in their work. It’s a unashamed celebration of everything NWA stood for and although the film sags in the middle it pulls it back for a genuinely tender finale. Straight Outta Compton may not be a warts and all exposé but it has at it’s heart a love of the music NWA made and for that I loved it.

Goodbye till next time!
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