N.W.A: Straight Outta Compton

Even as a white kid from suburbia, I remember being exposed to the exhilarating and raucous sound of N.W.A. when I was four or five. My mother would play one of her brother's personally mixed CDs, filled with novelty songs, parodies, and vulgar rap songs I probably shouldn't have been heard at such a tender age, in car rides with me. Songs like "Straight Outta Compton" and "F*** the Police" were ingrained in my head, and I remember especially finding telling social relevance in the line, "searchin' my car, lookin' for the product - thinking' every n**** is sellin' narcotics" from the latter song despite being so young.

I may not have ever experienced racial injustice in my life, but I was at least aware of racial double standards at a young age. With that, one of the purposes of F. Gary Gray's biopic on the acclaimed, pioneering rap group N.W.A. is to get us angry at the injustice that occurred in the 1980's and 1990's and remind us that this kind of hate still frighteningly occurs today. It hits us in the face and stomps on the audience hard, as if its strapped with brass knuckles and decked out in the latest Nikes, portraying the race relations in Los Angeles as they were - ugly and disgraceful.

This portrayal only fits that of N.W.A.'s music and character. Comprised of five talented, street-smart young men, N.W.A. was a rap group predicated on detailing their harsh reality and controversial opinions in a brutally honest manner. Featuring the lyrical talents of Ice Cube (O'Shea Jackson, Jr., son of Ice Cube and a spitting image of his father), Dr. Dre (Corey Hawkins), and Eazy-E (Jason Mitchell), in addition to the lyrical and producing talents of MC Ren (Aldis Hodge) and DJ Yella (Neil Brown, Jr.), N.W.A. went from a Compton area bunch to a nationwide supergroup in what seemed to be overnight. Armed with the guidance of acclaimed music producer Jerry Heller (Paul Giamatti) and their desire to rap the truth and the strength of street knowledge, "Straight Outta Compton" details the rise of the group in addition to subsequent beefs, contract battles, and multiple tragedies that faced the talented young men in their prime.

F. Gary Gray directs this film with complete conviction. He and writers Jonathan Herman and Andrea Berloff work to capture the major events in N.W.A. in a manner that, while all-encompassing, gets to the heart of each emotion and the significance of every conversation. Gray and company don't mess around in detailing the sure power and magnitude of this group through concerts, riots, and nationwide recognition, and they do so in a manner that's investing from the very first time the group is questioned by police for doing nothing wrong.

"Straight Outta Compton," again, much like the music of N.W.A., hooks you with its bravado and swagger. We see the incredible charisma and charm of these five men, we hear their hard-hitting lyricism and their strong production, and we feel their simultaneous pride for their city and condemnation of its flaws, such as systemic racism and discrimination. From Gray's assured direction, it continues with the performances, all of which unanimously strong. Eazy-E was a character I wasn't really expecting to see developed as much as he was, but with the writing at hand and Jason Mitchell's emotionally potent and tender performance, he becomes the standout in a sea of great acting.

Each actor brings something to the table here; Jackson, Jr.'s aggression is unmatched, particularly in a telling scene involving Priority Records, Hawkins is the conviction and the even-tempered soul through all this madness, Hodge is the wit and the sporadic humor of the group, and Brown, Jr. is the backup to all the characters in the film whenever they need it. Mitchell is the tender and enigmatic one, someone who isn't easily defined, has trouble rapping and performing occasionally, but someone who also comes with big ideas for the group he knows, loves, and wants to make huge. Finally, let's not forget Giamatti, in his second Oscar-worthy performance (first being in "Love & Mercy") of the year, who gives a performance just as emotionally investing and captivating as that of Mitchell's, particularly when the two are having a heart-to-heart.

As entertainment, "Straight Outta Compton," for this past summer, is unmatchable in its level of fun and human interest. As social commentary, despite being set a few decades back, the film is frighteningly current in its issues and its ideas. While it may follow some typical tropes of a biopic (the "rise and fall" structure), nonetheless, the sleekness and universal strength of everyone and everything in this project make it rise above those shortcomings into something truly worthwhile. Finally, as a piece of hip-hop history, and film in general, it's an indisputable must-see.

"Straight Outta Compton" has the similar taste of the other Music business,Wall Street business and the merchandise business movies which could easily satisfy and inspire the young audience to live their Katharsis of being a successful man or woman in the future, like the depicted successful people in these biographical genre movies. Because of theming this advantageous fact, usually these kinds of movies reaches the box office success in a short time (The Recent Example is The Wolf of Wall Street ). In addition to that, if you choose real biographic characters who live in ghettos and climbing the huge wall of the world's top in a while, definitely sell. Especially to young needy teenagers and young people eager to try everything to break the societies pressures and taboos.

The expectation on the box office is important of course. "Straight Outta Compton" will possibly gain the success on box office.But some effectiveness' can make the audience feel uncomfortable about watching it again or remember it as their one of all time favorite classic. At least I will criticize the defectiveness that I have determined after I watched the movie until the end.

The Subject of the biographic approach of Rap All-Stars is a perfect and unique idea. The originality can't be questioned. However the catharsis that I have mentioned before could not work for all cinema audience, I found the directing, acting and narration superficial.This was not the first biographical movie that has disappointed me with its narration and process of progression. And I think that won't be the last for sure.That's another argument.The main point is some biographies made by commercial concerns and cosmetic structure, harms them sometimes.This is the Rap Music's fathers' story,the action scenes could be more efficient on the contrary of matching some action b-movies, the classical and vigilant music agent profile played by Paul Giamatti, gave me the feeling of the same type which I ran across in other Music based movies.The actors who play the role of The Rap creators are good. The lack of the Katharsis begins with their shallow depiction, so that I definitely think that Dre or Ice Cube or Eazy E's lives depiction with other characters and crowded casting had created that mess and caused the defectiveness. Because almost 2 and a half hour movie isn't enough to depict the whole family of rap's beginning and the depiction of separate lives of them could make a better order in the narration. Linked to that criticism of the shallow narration, the documentary trace additions which would be a good idea on a biographical Movie, was used ineffectively in my opinion. For Example The Rap's born documentary series on VH1 would be watchable for all kinds of documentary lovers, so I believe that in the movie this magazine coverage documentary style is used by showing the social struggles of the Rapper's since their youth, the police's tough attitudes to the Black Citizens in their Neighbourhoods and putting the actual footage of the fights and plundering in the ghettos. However the idea of Half magazine and half crime narrated documentary style using in a movie, is very hard job and I realized that some parts were good adopted from this kind of E! or VH1 documentaries but some parts seemed weak because of several things that make the distinction between Documentary Movie and Cinema Movie, which would cause dead ends on the narration of Cinema Movie.

For instance the lack of voice narration as a result of the director's obligation of staying out of magazine words, the time-lapse difference between a documentary and a movie,the slow timing usage to tell the story in the movie on the contrary of a rushing biographical documentary and doing it with telling the audience the story of at least 5-6 rap stars in such a slow occasion, had killed the spirit of the "Magazine-Documentary- Biography" triplet style depiction. But I still believe that "Straight Outta Compton" could easily be the first and unique example of the future styles of direction and maybe could create a new unique genre as well.

For all the people who wrote 1/10 reviews. You have got to be kidding me. There are so many people, who write uselessly negative reviews, and for what? Aggressive, throwing stuff like, I'd rate it negatively if I could, and such. Talking about the NWA like they are 5 happy misogynists, having sex all the time, depraved bums and are proud of it. Talking about them sinning and having sex all the time. Listen to yourself. This film shows the dark side of the 1990's. Look how people were treated back then. This film shows what shit people went through back then. This shows who they were. So what is they had sex. Look where they came from. This is trying to show how much of a shit-show America was back then. This film is trying to tell you about that. The 80's and 90's weren't having a new brand systematically destroy America. America was destroying itself. These men were rappers. These men came from the streets. They grew up in a shit-show, and so they rap about it. They don't rap to prostitute their way to become millionaires. Look a little closer and stop focusing on all of the sex scenes for fucks sake. It's X-Rated, what do you expect? It's the history of the NWA. Nothing is ever completely white and pure. For all of you that say that this film shows 5 misogynistic men, fucking their way through life and destroying America. These people were rascals, sure. These people were thugs sure. These people rapped about their troubles. For the people that rated 1/10. You are very close minded, and are not aware of identities. Draw conclusions, not from the sex scenes and the swearing, but the story.

I never liked rap, I don't, and I never will.

But as a metalhead, I liked the movie.

I didn't personally grow up with NWA's music but I'm aware of how impactful this group was to the music industry and I think this film will please fans of the NWA.

Straight Outta Compton is about the formation of the well known rap group NWA, their impact on the music industry and the difficulties they faced as a group.

Whilst the film is about the NWA, it mainly focuses on three of its members: Ice Cube, Eazy-E and Dr. Dre. I really enjoyed Straight Outta Compton. I loved how it showed scenes of them writing and performing their music. It conveyed the passion they had for music whilst living in a dangerous area. I thought F. Gary Gray managed to show the dangerous aspects of Compton in a great way. The editing of the film was done really well. The first half didn't feel like it was slowing down which left me fairly engaged with the story. The second half is where the film did get more dramatic and that's where I thought it started to slow down a bit but despite that I never felt bored. I think the issue with the film is its accuracy. Since Dr. Dre and Ice Cube produced this film, I think a fair amount of events weren't depicted as it would them look bad which does make sense. However, I do wish the film had been more honest with its story.

The performances in this movie make the film really good. I enjoyed seeing some of the cameos of musical artists at that time. The casting for that was really done since so many of them resembled the look of the real life people and managed to act like them. O'Shea Jackson Jr., who is Ice Cube's son, plays the role of his father really well. Corey Hawkins does an excellent job as Dr. Dre and Jason Mitchell really surprised me with his performance as Eazy-E. Another surprise was Paul Giamatti who played the group's manager. He also did a very good job portraying Jerry Heller.

Straight Outta Compton really worked for me. I loved F. Gary Gray's approach to this story and it addressed a few issues that still place in the world today. I still wish it had more honesty but I was thoroughly entertained by the story and the performances.