Music biopics have been popular for a long time. Ray, Walk the Line, Notorious, and Great Balls of Fire are just some examples of some great music biopics that are both entertaining and fairly accurate. I would like to add Straight Outta Compton to the top of my list.
F. Gary Gray may be going back to making more critically acclaimed films. The director of Friday and The Negotiator, Gray did a great job of working with a few unknowns and some very well known actors to make a very unique and interesting film. I don’t feel anyone involved in making this movie did anything to glorify themselves in the past. Ice Cube and Dr. Dre were depicted fairly without making them look like heroes or villains. They are neither of those things, they are just people. The great biopics are far more honest and realistic and Straight Outta Compton follows that pattern. I loved that Gray was able to juggle realism, entertainment, and drama seamlessly.
Corey Hawkins portrayal of Dre was very compelling and shows off his acting ability. Hawkins has been in Broadway and Off-Broadway and seems to have a bright future as an actor. He will be in Kong: Skull Island in 2017 so keep a look out. O’Shea Jackson Jr. (Ice Cube’s son) portrays Ice Cube and does a great job. He looks like his dad and he seems to have his acting ability as well. There were moments watching this movie where I’m thinking “he really is Ice Cube.” The rest of the supporting cast did a great job and thanks to the acting, I was sucked right into the story and didn’t get out.
I love Paul Giamatti. He is a great supporting actor, if not, the high point of most movies. He is great in Straight Outta Compton as Jerry Heller. His scenes with Jason Mitchell, Easy-E, are so good due to their on-screen chemistry. If you love biopics check out American Splendor, which features Giamatti as cartoonist Harvey Pekar.
The music and setting, of course, was paramount. Using excerpts of songs, as opposed to remakes, in my opinion was the way to go. The wardrobe, extras, and even background music was very well mixed. I liked that they used the real album covers, billboards, and videos. Using the actual stuff gives it a much better feeling of authenticity.
I really enjoyed this movie and I would recommend this to anyone. I told a few of my friends that I watched it and the oddest reaction I got was “I didn’t know you liked rap music?” I thought this was interesting in a couple ways.
- I like rap music as well as a ton of other types of music. I guess I don’t dress like a fan of rap? I have no idea what I’m supposed to do or wear to give off that opinion. I haven’t really thought that I could guess people’s musical taste by their clothes (besides band shirts).
- You do not need to like rap music to like this movie. Even if I didn’t listen to rap, I know that I would have gone out of my way to watch this being a music biopic. This has everything you could like in a movie and you do not need to like the music to like the movie. It’s a good story and told well.
My expertise is in bad movies so I may not be qualified to say that this is great. But, I do know bad when I see it and this certainly is not.
