PDA

View Full Version : Straight Outta Compton (F. Gary Gray)



Henry Gale
08-19-2015, 02:41 AM
http://d3l9bzfuzkm13y.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/straight-outta-compton-SOC_Fin1Sheet10_RGB_0709_1_rgb-1310x2074.jpg

IMDb (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1398426/) / Wiki (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Straight_Outta_Compton_%282015 _film%29)

Henry Gale
08-19-2015, 03:24 AM
Pretty genuinely great, until it feels less so, and then it just kinda ends abruptly with the end titles doing the heavy lifting of resolution through real-life clips where most biopics would employ text crawls.

But there are a lot of fantastic sequences of all sorts. It's not the most comprehensive or nuanced script, but it moves at such a fantastic pace and covers so many bases that I was shocked to learn it was two and a half hours after the fact.

I coulda watched it for hours more, especially in its latter half, but as it is, it's a great time. Badass, hilarious, surprisingly emotionally effective, awesomely shot, and generally conveys just the attitude and passion you'd hope a movie about this group of characters would, all while rightfully pushing just the right social elements as a quiet mirror to just how much of it entirely based around events like the Rodney King trial and riots, but don't feel all that alien to the world we live now, despite Ice Cube having become a comedy movie star and Dr. Dre becoming a billionaire headphone mogul.

If every music biopic had one as gorgeously, heartedly cinematic and biting as the Detroit concert sequence here, the genre wouldn't have the vanilla connotation it tends to. Sure it hits those sort of expected beats too, but its peaks are more joyfully raw and dangerously vivid than most mainstream movies period, let alone for "The Story Of..." music movies.

***½ / 8.2

Fun fact: This was not the first rags-to-riches / music industry movie shot by Matthew Libatique that I watched today, as it had been a long while since I'd seen Josie and the Pussycats and went ahead and streamed the first half of it beforehand! (And I didn't even know he was the DoP of either of they started.)

Lazlo
08-19-2015, 04:16 AM
I thought it edged much too close to those VH1-style music movies. Felt flat in a lot of places and very few of the performances felt authentic to me. And there are way too many scenes of people walking into rooms and acting tough in front of whoever happens to be in the room. Extremely repetitive.

Pop Trash
08-19-2015, 04:02 PM
I thought it edged much too close to those VH1-style music movies. Felt flat in a lot of places and very few of the performances felt authentic to me. And there are way too many scenes of people walking into rooms and acting tough in front of whoever happens to be in the room. Extremely repetitive.

Basically agree. The first half is entertaining and I like the NWA formation scenes. Ice Cube teaching Eazy-E how to rap is funny. The "Fuck the Police" concert scene in Detroit is good stuff.

The film loses a lot of steam in the second half and it really gets bogged down in checklist biopic conventions (here's 10 seconds of Snoop...here's 10 seconds of 2Pac...here's the line about Aftermath) and feels scattered and shallow. Nothing is really dwelled upon in an interesting way because they have to move on to the next thing on the checklist.

Even though it got the biggest laugh of my theater, the "Bye Felicia" bit is some shameless audience pandering since that scene really didn't have anything to do with anything. Plus the anti misogyny naysayers do have a point but, hey, in the immortal words of Dr. Dre and Snoop "bitches ain't shit but hoes and tricks. Lick on deez nuts and suck the dick."

D_Davis
08-19-2015, 04:18 PM
Plus the anti misogyny naysayers do have a point but, hey, in the immortal words of Dr. Dre and Snoop "bitches ain't shit but hoes and tricks. Lick on deez nuts and suck the dick."

Yeah, but see...not all women are bitches. Only bitches are hoes and tricks.

Pop Trash
08-19-2015, 04:33 PM
Yeah, but see...not all women are bitches. Only bitches are hoes and tricks.

Relevant.

http://therapup.net/wp-content/uploads/2009/02/unifiedbitchtheory.jpg

Spinal
08-20-2015, 05:21 AM
The three principals are fantastic, especially Jason Mitchell as Easy-E. What excellent casting! Strangely it's Paul Giamatti that is the weak link here, or perhaps it's the decision to spend so much time with his character. The bickering over contracts is the least interesting aspect of the film. Much more interesting is the way the film draws a direct connection from the themes of NWA's music to the racial tension of today. It's a very timely movie and there are several scenes that are bubbling with danger and tension. I also loved the concert recreations. However, the film could have benefited from a tighter focus. There's a desire here to include a few loose ends that just don't seem all that relevant. And there are a few scenes that register as inauthentic. But when it works, it really works. Gave me a lot to think about. I realized that when NWA came out, I had no context to understand what they were about. They make so much more sense to me now.

I liked the somewhat subtle touch in the last scene:

Dre wearing E's Sox hat

Interesting choice to cast a black actor to play an antagonistic policeman in a pivotal scene. Was this to underline the idea that the tension is about power and class as much as it is about race? I wonder what motivated that choice.

Lazlo
08-20-2015, 01:10 PM
Interesting choice to cast a black actor to play an antagonistic policeman in a pivotal scene. Was this to underline the idea that the tension is about power and class as much as it is about race? I wonder what motivated that choice.

This line from "Fuck the Police":

But don't let it be a black and a white one
Cause they'll slam ya down to the street top
Black police showing out for the white cop

Spinal
08-20-2015, 03:31 PM
This line from "Fuck the Police":

But don't let it be a black and a white one
Cause they'll slam ya down to the street top
Black police showing out for the white cop

Ah, that makes sense. Thanks!

Spinal
08-21-2015, 06:33 PM
Sequel? (http://www.cbsnews.com/news/straight-outta-compton-may-have-sequel-in-the-works/)

DavidSeven
08-23-2015, 10:56 PM
You could try to simply write this film off for relying on familiar biopic beats and cable-ready melodrama (which it does), but even if you do, I think acknowledgement must be made that, in spite of those limitations, this is still exceedingly well-made for a Hollywood product. It captures something very distinctive. It feels like a project that was made with passion and careful attention to detail. The lead performances are great, and the recreation of '86-'92 L.A. is vivid.

Certainly, the film is at its best when focused primarily on the group's formation and initial success. The struggle in these scenes hits closer to home, and the "Man" is much more interesting as an antagonizing force than greedy managers and Suge Knight. I was surprised, and impressed, that they made Eazy-E the most interesting and complex character in the film. I have a feeling that could've gone a lot of different ways, especially without his direct involvement, but the resulting portrayal felt rich and very human. I did feel they hinted at his illness for a little too long, and the film did start feeling like a checklist for hip hop fans toward the end. That being said, I understand the filmmakers wanting to meet the expectations of its target audience, and, honestly, I never felt the story went off the rails or became boring.

If you've seen music biopics before, there's some familiarity here, but I think this is a cut-above. It operates as not just a nostalgia piece, but a very timely reflection of the current sociopolitical environment. From a pure filmmaking perspective, it's very well-done. My only wish in that regard is that there were more scenes that lived up to the film's fantastically constructed opening (intro to Eazy-E).

Ezee E
12-01-2015, 06:06 PM
This is on the verge of being great, showing the struggles of mixing business with friends, and a rags to riches story that's truly interesting. It may have benefitted from being a TV miniseries in this respect as it does get boggled down into giving audiences what they think they wanted. The Snoop Dogg/Tupac scenes simply feel forced, and Suge Knight's character is all braun, no brains.

Grouchy
05-23-2016, 06:28 PM
Eh. I don't know if it's just that I have zero appreciation for the music but after a very strong opening it just became slow and boring.