dir. by F. Gary Gray
New music biopic about the influential rap group aims broadly in its scope, and proves a thoroughly entertaining watch despite its issues.Straight Outta Compton tells the story of N.W.A., the 90s hip-hop group consisting of Ice Cube, Dr. Dre, Eazy-E and others, and the group's rise, fall, and rise again. For the most part, it sticks closely to the group's relation to the industry, preferring to merely tell the story instead of really delve into it. While the film begins at the very start, it largely glosses over the members' backgrounds in favour of focusing on the elements that led up to the formation of the group. The little we see of that helps define who the focus characters are for the rest of the film, so it's a shame that there isn't a little more time spent on building up each character individually. Compton is epic in scope, nearly spanning the course of a decade in its 2 and a half hour running time. In most biopics, this means that the material is heavily compressed, and unfortunately this film is no exception. In order to cover everything it wants, the film has to skim over a number of topics, including hip-hop beefs, racism in the record industry, and drug dealing to get by, among other things. As a result, the film seems a bit more shallow than it actually is.
In reality, Straight Outta Compton does address a number of issues through the lens of the members of N.W.A., most prominently police discrimination and contract difficulties. In fact, the parts of the film that are about the police are particularly well-developed, which is doubly good because police violence is a timely thing to be addressed. As one subplot about a specific case of police brutality develops, it's hard not to correlate it to recent events. While most of the other interesting themes the film brings up aren't covered quite as well, they're still explored enough to be understood on a respectable level. All the same, trying to cover so much ground leaves the film with a lack of focus, and the film doesn't always manage to distract from that.
Visually, much of the film has a tinted, sleek aesthetic not entirely unlike a rap video. This is most obvious in scenes where the camera glides around a crowd or over a car before settling on the characters, and it gives the film a very unique visual personality. There's a number of scenes where the cinematography reverts to comparatively standard angles and palettes, but even then the film retains enough of its personality to maintain cohesiveness and keep from feeling generic. As good as it looks, though, ultimately the star of Straight Outta Compton's presentation is its soundtrack, brilliantly curated from the archives of gangsta rap and representing the very best of the genre, while also displaying how the genre evolved over the course of the decade. Classic tune after classic tune belts out of the theatre's speakers, helped by the film's marvellous sound design that makes the beats thunder through the auditorium. Most songs play in snippets, but those snippets are more than enough to really feel the significance of the tunes.
Despite all five of the group's main members featuring on the poster, only Ice Cube, Dr. Dre, and Eazy-E ultimately matter in the context of the story. It's the creative differences of those three that drive the plot forward, with Dj Yella and MC Ren ultimately sitting on the sidelines most of the time. Given that Ren, in particular, eventually founded his own record label, it's a shame that their stories have been sidelined to the point that they're supporting characters in their own movie.
Perhaps the greatest asset the film has is its vibrant dialogue, which elevates each scene and provides an entertaining centrepiece, and providing a great base for electric performances from the whole cast. Ice Cube is played by his son, O'Shea Jackson Jr., who proves himself more than worthy of playing his dad, bringing forth the energy and anger needed to really embody the rapper at the height of his career. Corey Hawkins does a similarly great job with Dr. Dre's more reserved demeanor, as does Jason Mitchell with the increasingly confident and cocky Eazy-E. In all sincerity, the entire cast is just fantastic, bringing the requisite energy to an exciting script filled with lines that beg for a truly confident delivery. With lesser actors, the best scenes of the movie might not have as much appeal, but with such talent on screen, scene after scene hits hard.
In its structure and its pacing, however, Straight Outta Compton is far less unconventional. The actual events that transpire are sufficiently intriguing, but N.W.A.'s story is organized and bent into a much more typical shape than it could have been. With how the plot beats are spaced out, the plot comes to resemble the trajectory of any number of groups. The screenwriters found the right key events in the group's story to fit the mold, and then paced out the film to revolve around those events. This anchors the film around the group's history, but at the same time somewhat reduces its uniqueness. For the entirety of the first act and much of the second, the stylistic smoke and mirrors tends to disguise the film's core issues, but in the latter half of the film, a few overblown scenes fall flat and briefly reveal these issues.
Perhaps the most enjoyable scenes are in the studio, seeing the producers and rappers at work, bouncing their creative energy off of each other. It's in these moments that Straight Outta Compton truly shines, taking the group's narrative and imbuing it with wall-to-wall energy while representing how the characters' environment shaped their art. Similarly, the scenes showing conflict between N.W.A. and the police show potential for a much more powerful movie, really emphasizing how the group challenged society's standards of normalcy. While the film is at its worst still a good movie, it's in these scenes that it's truly a great movie, and while they're frequent, they're never quite frequent enough.
Ultimately, Straight Outta Compton stands as a little bit of a disappointment relative to what it might have been. However, it's a highly entertaining sit all the same, even if it's not as essential as it initially appeared. The biggest issue isn't that any part of it is bad, but that the quality of its best parts isn't maintained throughout the entire 2 and a half hours. The film tries to pack a lot into its long running time, and unfortunately it's uneven in quality. Despite being perfectly easy to recommend, the whole of Straight Outta Compton is ultimately not as essential as its parts.
No comments:
Post a Comment