Roxanne Roxanne

I remember when my boy D came home from Detroit with a Roxanne tape. It was all we played for weeks. This movie was well acted but lacked the feeling of the time and music of the period. I expected more from it.

Much better than most hiphop movies previously made, with a bit more depth and budget I would have gone to the cinema to see this.

Hopefully there will be more movies of this type as there some great stories to tell about the golden era of hiphop and plenty of fans.

Good acting and casting and held my attention throughout which is a rarity nowadays for tv output. Way better acted and far more authentic than The Getdown.

The only thing that redeems this messy film is the superb acting specially from the lead actress Chanté Adams; she made me care about her character and root for her character, although neither the character's background or the struggles that the character went through have been represented well. Also, Mahershala Ali gave an awesome and powerful performance, he steals every scene he's in in this film.

Don't get me wrong it's a bad film but the great acting is what kept me riveted while watching it.

At the first act, the film tries to show me Roxanne Shanté's backstory which should be important but what I got instead are details about minor characters that don't have anything to do with the story but even that it was hard to figure out who's who. Also, there are a lot of in-your-face messages about racism.

The character of Roxanne Shanté's mother is annoyingly stereotyped and the film gave her dramatic scenes which are so corny. The dialogue is so faked and stilted that it ruined some great acted scenes.

There are many important turning points in the plot that are so rushed.

(5/10)

As a hip hop head this truly disappointed me. Of course I am aware of the history Roxanne Shante has played. For those who did not know now know, but I felt the story was very weak. The dialogue doesn't grab you by the balls. There is a huge lack of, something. It doesn't feel raw. It doesn't take you back to the 80s, more like a low budget movie. The same feeling I got from The Get Down, although they had a 30 million dollar budget. I also feel that her story alone is not enough to represent Hip Hop alone. There were many other female MCs at that time who started way before Shante who never received the same credit they deserve. If this story is about abuse, a young girl going up in the projects and by ''accident'' becoming a full-time rapper, then overall it could have been told better.

Whether it was the acting or direction needing vast improvement, the portrayal by Chante Adams of Roxanne Shante was average at best, and sometimes cringe enducing. And although the factual story was interesting to absorb, as a fan of Roxanne Shante's music, I would have liked to have seen it stretch into the Go on Girl and Live On Stage era.

Additionally, the rap wars with BDP and the coming together of the Juice Crew would have bolstered the story with factual content important and interesting to Hip Hop fans across the world, especially relative to Roxanne Shante. I understand the focus here was on the mistreatment and early life, but the film lost an opportunity to be much bigger by leaving out these explorations.