Straight Outta Compton – Film Review by Emily Elphinstone

Director: F. Gary Gray
Writers: Jonathan Herman (screenplay), Andrea Berloff (screenplay)
Stars: O’Shea Jackson Jr., Corey Hawkins, Jason Mitchell

Straight Outta Compton documents a rise to fame so stratospheric, that it’s hard to believe. Growing up in one of the most notoriously rough areas of LA, five young men, including Dr Dre (Corey Hawkins), Eazy-E (Jason Mitchell), and Ice Cube (played by Cubes’s real son O’Shea Jackson, Jr.); come together to form rap super group NWA.

Revolutionising music with their ultra-real ‘Gangsta Rap’, they swiftly taking the world by storm, despite early claims that no one would be interested.

In no time at all they go from a self produced hit: ‘Boyz-N-The-Hood’, to signing a deal with Priority Records. However, conflicts within the group, and with manager Jerry Heller (played by the ever brilliant Paul Giamatti) lead to the departure of Ice Cube, and the eventual dispansion of NWA.

As Straight Outta Compton is produced by Dr Dre, Ice Cube, and Eazy-E’s widow Tomica Woods-Wright; there is no doubt that the film presents the rappers as they wish to be portrayed. Their own violent streaks are only seen in brief flashes, delivered with a light touch; and famous incidents such as Dre’s assaults on women are omitted completely. In fact, apart from their mothers, who we see briefly; the women in the film are largely disposable.

The real strength of the film comes from the more personal interactions between the central characters and the music they love so much; as we get to know the young men, and the troubled world they come from. With references to the Rodney King case, and numerous occurrences of being targeted by police because of their skin colour (most notably in a scene when the band are forced to lie face down on the pavement as they stand outside the recording studio on their lunch break) there are disturbing parallels to recent reports of Police brutality in the US; which makes their anti-police lyrics easy to comprehend. Less successful are the hero and villain extremes of later drama, which struggles to cover a lot of action and a number of other characters in a relatively small time.

Like the central characters of the film, it may have its flaws, but with an excellent young cast who are entirely believable as the original gangster rappers, and an incredible soundtrack; Straight Outta Compton will no doubt win over any doubters in the end.