Movie Review : Straight Outta Compton

Biography/Drama/Music

Rated – MA15+

Duration – 147mins

Release – September 2015

Director – F. Gary Gray

Cast – O’Shea Jackson Jr, Corey Hawkins, Jason Mitchell, Paul Giamatti

Mr Knight

“Cruisin’ down the street in my 64”. Lyrics to kick start five young men and take them from the rough streets of Compton to infamy. For any person who was born in the 70s and 80s this is a movie that should peak your interest. For any rap fans, Straight Outta Compton is more of a history lesson than movie. However this is one history lesson you won’t want to miss.

Straight Outta Compton takes cinema goers back to 1986, Los Angeles, California to the dangerous streets of Compton. Five teenage friends experiencing the realities of their hazardous environment have a dream to become more than what society believe and expects them to be. Compton is the back drop of the start of this story opening up your eyes to the drugs, gang lifestyle and the response by the over the top and racially profiling LAPD in an attempt to keep the peace.

For five young black American men living in a gang neighbourhood, lyrical talent Ice Cube, up and coming DJ Dr. Dre, DJ Ren, MC Yella and drug running Eazy-E come together to bring a fresh, new sound to the scene. With Rap just emerging in the 80’s with artists like Public Enemy and L.L Cool J, the group create a new edge as N.W.A. (Niggas with Attitude).

With the influence of street life, drugs, girls and the harsh treatment by LA’s finest to Compton’s community, Ice Cube creates hard hitting lyrics not heard before, such as the well-known “Fuck the Police”. Dr. Dre creates the sound and Eazy-E becomes the front man, throwing the music scene into anarchy and creating fame and fortune not ever imagined by the group.

Jason Mitchell’s Eazy-E gives N.W.A. financial backing and finds the groups’ manager, Paul Giamatti’s Jerry Heller. Heller takes the groups raw talent and does what most expect business man with naïve artists would do. Takes advantage. As you would expect, drama ensues.

Despite the movies length, a myriad of unknown actors (with Giamatti being the movies only A-Lister), Straight Outta Compton kept an engrossing story flowing with just the right amount of violence, partying, music and drama. Despite N.W.A.’s raw inspiration, the movie didn’t rely on that gangster theme to carry the story. The inside look on the business of the individual artists rise and fall was what I found most intriguing.

Head in to your local cinema and enjoy some of the best movie soundtracks going around and the history that goes with it.






Mrs Knight

There was never any doubt that I was going to love this flick, if nothing else, for the music alone. Straight Outta Compton proved to be so much more than I hoped. Director F. Gary Gray led a convincing and engaging cast making for a compelling biopic. The film was produced by two of the central rappers Ice Cube and Dr Dre, along with Eazy-E’s widow, Tomica Woods-Wright. While the story is very much told in their favour, I can’t imagine the story being outrageously different in real life. But how am I to know.

The film shows the quick rise to fame for Eazy E and N.W.A with their hit song “Boyz-n-the-Hood”. Eazy-E quickly gets signed by Manager Jerry Heller (Paul Giamatti) who leads him and the group to success. We follow them on a sold out tour as they become the original gangsters of hip hop and their song “Fuck the Police” brings controversy. They used this song during the upsetting footage of Rodney King being brutally beaten by police and the riots that followed.

The brotherhood doesn’t last long as the groups leading music composer and producer, Dr.Dre, rapper MC Ren and DJ Yella all sign contracts with Jerry Heller and Eazy-E’s record label “Ruthless”. Ice Cube, who is the lead music writer goes his own way and we see a feud begin. Ice Cube is played by his real life son O’Shea Jackson Jr and it is frightening how similar they look! I started to forget what Ice Cube looks like.

We eventually see Dr Dre follow suit and join business savvy Suge Knight and everyone’s career booms, except for Eazy-E’s. This has to be my favourite part of the film as we see and hear Dr.Dre compose familiar lyrics and beats with Snoop Dog and Tupac.

While we saw small bits of drugs, sex and violence, I liked that they kept the storyline to the music and business of the music industry. A word of advice, make sure you read your contracts carefully! For the most part the story was long and detailed, covering a lot of ground. It ended up feeling a bit too rushed towards the end as we see a quick decline in Eazy’s health and left me wanting more. None the less, the film was heartfelt and told in a compelling and entertaining way.

I was impressed with the casting for both their conviction and appearance. It was good to see real footage emerge towards the end so we could see just how well it was cast. Plus, I got to see a tiny cameo by my boy…Eminem. Before seeing this film I didn’t realise just how revolutionary they were for hip hop. It was fascinating to see the incredible impact they made on the music industry. I walked out of the cinema wanting to listen to their music more than ever before.