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The "Straight" Story

The release of NWA's 1988 debut, "Straight Outta Compton", was a groundbreaking moment for a variety of reasons. Aside from launching the careers of all involved, particularly Ice Cube and Dr. Dre, it introduced the world to "gangsta rap", changed the sound of the hip hop landscape, and shined a spotlight on south LA in the years leading up to the Rodney King beating. Now the story of Dre, Cube, Eazy-E, MC Ren and DJ Yella is given a biopic treatment with F Gary Gray's workmanly "Straight Outta Compton". The film doesn't come close to matching the impact of the album, but the material is so riveting that it nearly sustains the film's two-and-a-half hour running time.

As with any biopic, it's only a question of which vice will be the catalyst of the film's rise-and-fall structure. Perhaps ironically, in the case of NWA, it's not the drugs, women or guns which are so much a part of their lyrics. It's the business. And, despite the fact that Dr. Dre and Ice Cube went on to be wildly successful entrepreneurs, it's heartbreaking to see these immensely talented kids get caught up in contractual disputes at the expense of creating more NWA records. As Eazy says at one point, "we left a lot of records on the table".

But while the plot is fairly rote, the real fun of the film is in the music and the casting. NWA's music is still so visceral that the film's performances (either in the recording booth or on stage) pack a wallop. There is also a treasure trove of classics tunes sprinkled throughout the soundtrack (some fun is had with a Tears for Fears music cue during the drive-by of a predominantly white high school).

O'Shea Jackson Jr., Ice Cube's son, makes his acting debut here. He is the spitting image of his father and his presence gives the film an eerie authenticity. (It's almost worth a companion documentary to hear the young actor discuss the experience of playing his father recording those early songs.) As Dre, Corey Hawkins ("Non-stop", "Iron Man 3"), has the look of a young Denzel Washington and is made to shoulder a majority of the film's emotional moments. Lip service is given Dre's wife and daughter, but the tragic loss of his younger brother is used reverently. Jason Mitchell ("Contraband") plays Eazy-E, disappearing into E's signature look and lending the character a surprisingly soft heart, which serves the story well.

Though the young actors, and the ensemble that surrounds them, give the film their all, none of them is the standout that the film requires. That's not entirely the fault of the actors. The script - by Jonathan Herman and Andrea Berloff - spends little time on the character's personal lives or how they met; they all seem to know each other already. Perhaps unsurprisingly, it's a bit of a toss up between women, policemen and Suge Knight for the honor of "who's represented the worst" (spoiler: it's the police). Even Paul Giamatti seems to struggle with material that makes him more of a mouthpiece than a character. The actors are eventually let down by a final act that descends into the kind of attempt at tear-jerking that Eazy himself would likely have called an "After-school Special".

But otherwise, the film focuses on the staggeringly fast rise and fall of the group during the tour in support of the titular album. "Compton" is really the tale of Eazy-E. Of all the group's members, Eazy (born Eric Wright) was probably the closest to living the life described in their lyrics. The money he earned from drug dealing gives them their start, and his questionable partnership with manager Jerry Heller (Mr. Giamatti) provides the through-line for the movie, just as his death provides its denouement.

The confluence of events that led to this watershed moment in music - the influx of drugs and guns in the country, combined with the escalating racial tension and economic disparity in south LA - that caused this group to use "reality rap" to express what they were seeing outside, make "Compton" as fascinating as any musical "origin story". As is often the case in these movies, the music and lyrics seem to appear fully-formed out of the mouths of the characters. Regardless of how it really happened, you won't want to revisit the time but you will want to revisit the music.