Straight Outta Compton opens in Australia this week after having already spent three weekends in a row at the top of the US box office – and it’s pretty obvious why.
F Gary Gray (Law Abiding Citizen, Be Cool) has hit his directorial peak with this biopic of hip-hop super-group NWA. Explaining the origins of the group, he gets right into the nitty-gritty, touching on racial issues and NWA’s often volatile relationship with law enforcement.
The story opens in 1986, with friends Erik “Eazy E” Wright (Jason Mitchell), Andre “Dr Dre” Young (Corey Hawkins) and O’Shea “Ice Cube” Jackson (played by his son O’Shea Jackson Jr) recording their first song, “Boyz In Da Hood”, with friends DJ Yella and MC Wren. Following its success, talent agent Jerry Heller (Paul Giamatti) helps them to produce their first album, Straight Outta Compton.
Despite being shrouded in controversy and drawing criticism from many quarters, especially for signature track “F*** Tha Police”, Straight Outta Compton is a commercial and critical success and thrusts the young men into the spotlight as they embark on a national tour.
The performances from Mitchell, Hawkins and Jackson are fantastic; each embody best friends Eazy, Dre and Cube, particularly O’Shea Jackson Jr (who is said to have trained for months with his father to play the role). The chemistry between the three is impressive, as is the way they capture the characters’ emotions during often-turbulent moments in NWA’s history.
There are also strong performances by the supporting cast, in particular Giamatti as NWA manager and Ruthless records co-founder Heller, and R Marcus Taylor as Dr Dre’s foreboding confidant, Suge Knight.
Writers S. Leigh Savidge, Alan Wenkus and Andrea Berloff have done well to capture not only NWA’s story, but also those of the individual musicians. The script, however, is a little bulky; the film runs for two-and-a-half hours, with long monologues and exchanges that sometimes expose the inexperience of the fledgling actors. Yet there is little exploration of NWA members DJ Yella and MC Wren, despite the fact that they feature on almost every track on the album Straight Outta Compton.
Racial matters and police brutality are a central theme of the movie and are extremely poignant at a time when America is in turmoil over the disproportionate level of deaths of black people at the hands of police. Other topical subjects, such as sexual health, are also tackled, but it is interesting that domestic violence is not, especially given Dr Dre’s history of violence against women.
Straight Outta Compton is an amazing window into the conception of the true pioneers of the West Coast rap sound. This biopic will hit home not only with hip-hop fans, but also many other movie-goers.
