{"id":7084,"date":"2015-12-14T03:41:10","date_gmt":"2015-12-14T07:41:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/arts.umich.edu\/ink\/?p=7084"},"modified":"2015-12-14T03:47:39","modified_gmt":"2015-12-14T07:47:39","slug":"weekend-watch-straight-outta-compton","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/artsatmichigan.umich.edu\/ink\/2015\/12\/14\/weekend-watch-straight-outta-compton\/","title":{"rendered":"Weekend Watch – \u201cStraight Outta Compton\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s frustrating to see biopics fall into the same traps over and over, but \u201cStraight Outta Compton\u201d falls into many of them. It\u2019s more enjoyable than many\u2014funnier and more entertaining than the typical template of a genius white British man\u2014and the subjects are more engaging and interesting than most biopic subjects. In general, it\u2019s a good idea<\/em> for a movie, and that idea makes it uncommonly interesting even when the movie lags.<\/p>\n

And I think that\u2019s the biggest problem: the movie lags a lot. It\u2019s 147 minutes, but from the pace of the first half, it seems like it should only be 100, 120 at most. By the end, when ostensibly heartbreaking things are happening, I just wasn\u2019t feeling sad because I\u2019d generally lost interest in the movie at that point. I heard people behind me afterwards talking about how they were crying watching Eazy-E dying from AIDS, so maybe the movie had its intended effect on some people. But even though I thought Eazy-E was interesting, even though Jason Mitchell was one of the standouts of the cast, I just wasn\u2019t invested anymore.<\/p>\n

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I think it\u2019s also partly because Eazy-E getting AIDS feels like just another superfluous subplot in a movie full of them. There are countless cameos, like Keith Stanfield as Snoop Dogg and Marcc Rose as Tupac. Some of them are neat (I love Stanfield), and there\u2019s always a little kind of thrill to seeing the origin of something great\u2014like when Snoop Dogg and Dre sit down and make \u201cNuthin\u2019 but a \u2018G\u2019 Thang.\u201d Still, it\u2019s pretty silly to pretend that that song was completely free-styled. More importantly, these cameos don\u2019t add anything to the movie besides the slight novelty of seeing recognizable rap stars just starting out. There are so many things that the movie tries to deal with, from the death of Dre\u2019s brother to the death of Eazy-E to the conflict with manager Jerry Heller (a great Paul Giamatti, though he\u2019s so likable that his supposed betrayal didn\u2019t even bother me), that it all just feels like too much, especially because it almost totally sidelines DJ Yella and MC Ren, two of the founding members of NWA.<\/p>\n

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So many biopics fall into this trap of being too cluttered and unfocused, and at this point, I\u2019m honestly just left wondering why it\u2019s so hard. \u201cSelma\u201d did it perfectly, focusing on a small slice of Martin Luther King Jr.\u2019s life and building a compelling story out of it that never lagged. \u201cThe Imitation Game\u201d mostly did it with the fun thriller-type plot of trying to break the code, and even though that movie isn\u2019t great and falls into a lot of different biopic stereotypes, it made the right call when it came to having a strong central plot. But most of the other bland biopics that come out are just so long and so unfocused.<\/p>\n

I think I have a theory for part of the reason why that happens so often: filmmakers feel like creating one central narrative is changing history too much, molding it into a simplistic linear plot format. This is the precise time that changing history for the sake of a movie is necessary<\/em>, though. Sure, there are times when a movie does it way too much and is insulting to the actual events and people it\u2019s trying to depict, like with \u201cSaving Mr. Banks,\u201d but generally, changing history to make a structurally strong movie is necessary.<\/p>\n

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So you\u2019d think that the source of the problems with \u201cStraight Outta Compton\u201d is its strict dedication to history, but it\u2019s also clear (even without me knowing much about the real-life subjects) that the facts have been manipulated. For much of the movie, Ice Cube, Dre, and Eazy-E are treated as kind of flawless rap legends, these civil rights heroes who don\u2019t have many issues of their own besides the environment they grow up in. The individual characters\u2019 histories with violence and misogyny aren\u2019t really tackled; when characters do get in a physical fight, it\u2019s either not the main characters\u2019 faults (like when Eazy-E gets the shit beaten out of him by Suge Knight) or they\u2019re doing it to protect the people close to them. The first half, while being a lot more engaging than the second half, still suffers from crafting a too-perfect rise to fame arc, with lots of scenes of crowds just worshipping NWA.<\/p>\n

Still, there\u2019s a lot to like in the movie, especially in that first half. The actors are pretty well-chosen; though O\u2019Shea Jackson, Jr. is probably the weakest of the three leads, he\u2019s such a spitting image of his father (the real Ice Cube) that it doesn\u2019t matter. Besides, he\u2019s strong whenever he gets to be angry, like when he destroys Bryan\u2019s office, one of the few scenes that acknowledges the real-life subjects\u2019 violent acts. Corey Hawkins is also pretty great as Dre, conveying a young person\u2019s vulnerability and passion when he\u2019s just starting out and commanding authority once he\u2019s established himself as a star. I have some reservations about his reductive characterization as the \u2018nice, good-humored guy\u2019 of the movie early on, especially knowing about Dr. Dre\u2019s assaults, but he still makes for a likable and interesting protagonist.<\/p>\n

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Most of the standout sequences of the film are in that first half. There\u2019s the emotional scene when Dre learns that his brother was killed, and his friends comfort him. There\u2019s the single long take of NWA partying in a hotel room that\u2019s perfectly shot by director F. Gary Gray, recalling a \u201cBoogie Nights\u201d or \u201cGoodfellas\u201d-style scene of excess and offering an unexpected reference to \u201cFriday\u201d with \u201cBye, Felicia.\u201d And, it should be said, the movie works well for its musical elements, because these are some pretty great songs. It\u2019s just fun<\/em> to watch \u201cGangsta Gangsta,\u201d \u201cBoyz-n-the-Hood,\u201d \u201cDopeman,\u201d and \u201cNo Vaseline\u201d being performed and recorded.<\/p>\n

By far the most effective and impactful scenes of the movie, though, are the ones that detail police brutality. Sure, maybe it\u2019s not exactly nuanced\u2014every single cop we see is unabashedly racist\u2014but there\u2019s something visceral and real about seeing all the black characters being shoved to the ground and handcuffed simply for existing. When NWA is told by the police not to perform \u201cFuck tha Police\u201d at their Detroit concert and they do it anyway, it\u2019s a genuinely thrilling moment. That whole scene is intense as the cops chase NWA down and arrest them, and the five of them all laughing together in the back of a police truck is a pretty perfect image. I can\u2019t tell you whether NWA deserves to be put among the champions of racial equality, but it was pretty inspiring to watch in the film.<\/p>\n

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In fact, \u201cStraight Outta Compton\u201d probably would\u2019ve been a lot stronger if it stuck to that: the production of the \u201cStraight Outta Compton\u201d album and the controversy NWA faced for their groundbreaking violent themes. There are isolated sequences of the film that are absolutely gripping, and there are a lot of good ideas here. The problem is that it\u2019s all crammed into one overlong package. By the end, all it inspires is indifference.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s frustrating to see biopics fall into the same traps over and over, but \u201cStraight Outta Compton\u201d falls into many of them. It\u2019s more enjoyable than many\u2014funnier and more entertaining than the typical template of a genius white British man\u2014and the subjects are more engaging and interesting than most biopic subjects. In general, it\u2019s a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2178,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/artsatmichigan.umich.edu\/ink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7084"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/artsatmichigan.umich.edu\/ink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/artsatmichigan.umich.edu\/ink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artsatmichigan.umich.edu\/ink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2178"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artsatmichigan.umich.edu\/ink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7084"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/artsatmichigan.umich.edu\/ink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7084\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7096,"href":"https:\/\/artsatmichigan.umich.edu\/ink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7084\/revisions\/7096"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/artsatmichigan.umich.edu\/ink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7084"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artsatmichigan.umich.edu\/ink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7084"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artsatmichigan.umich.edu\/ink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7084"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}