1. Theaters are checking purses and bags .. badly.
When first informed about a search, I thought the policy was racist as related to the film I had bought a ticket to see. Racially profiled at the movie theater, damn! Do I look like the type of gangsta chick who's going to wild out at a Sunday matinee in the suburbs? But then I thought, well, they did just have that mad shooter at the Louisiana theater a month ago, and the sentencing for the crazy-eyed fool who shot up everybody during Batman in Colorado just went down. So... who conducted this serious security screening in the wake of continued random cinema violence nationwide? The same pimply faced kid who had just torn my ticket, and he seemed embarrassed at having to dig deep into the two-gallon satchel I was carrying. At the bottom of my bag were the napkin-swaddled sandwich and chips I smuggled in from outside. For all he knew, it was a gun or a bomb. He barely looked. "You're fine," he said after a cursory peek.
2. The movie appears to serve as a teaching tool.
From the number of parents with their spawn at this R-rated flick, you would have thought it was the latest Disney or teen scream movie. But I saw a handful of father-son duos checking it out together. Looked like the dads -- who were either impressionable lads or hip-hop headed 20somethings when N.W.A. burst through the noise -- wanted to share with their progeny the experience of growing up black in the '80s and '90s in the age of pernicious police profiling, devastating gang warfare, joblessness, and the art of cutting and scratching on the 1s and 2s. The film offers a history lesson on the birth of gangster rap; the unscrupulous methods of the music industry; the cultural fallout of the Rodney King beating and subsequent riots; the legal parameters of free speech as applied to rap; and the far-reaching impact of the AIDS epidemic. Further, one could argue that the film also offers some evidence of the moral value of hard work and remaining true to oneself. Watch and learn, Grasshopper.
3. Some kids weren't there for those lessons.
A couple of families in the theater had kids younger than 10 with them. One of these families was of the Caucasian persuasion. WTH? The film had a plethora of sex, violence, drugs, semi nudity and raw language. I'm not a parent, but I don't think I would have been comfortable passing the popcorn with my grade schoolers as this unspooled.
4. Ice Cube Jr. looks so much like Ice Cube Sr. that it's uncanny.
At times I forgot that O'Shea Jackson, Jr., wasn't actually Ice Cube. And it appears that the kid can act. Or maybe he can just act like his father. Who hasn't done their Daddy impression at the holiday kids' table? We'll have to see what the future holds for Junior.
5. The casting was strong overall.
In fact, the young actors portraying Cube, Eazy-E, and Dr. Dre are stellar, and they need to be because they carry the action. O'Shea Jackson Jr. has all of his father's wit and braggadocio. Corey Hawkins brings an eye-on-the-prize gravity and humility to Dre, who seemed the sternest of the group. And Jason Mitchell, in his third film, gives Eazy the impish charm the raw rapper was occasionally known for in real life. Neil Brown Jr. provides comic relief as DJ Yella, and Aldis Hodge gives MC Ren a wiry intelligence. The earnest faces of the main trio, not to mention the scenes of high hilarity and raw human-ness, reminded me of how much great acting can elevate a film. And it also reminded me that N.W.A., for all their gang posturing and experience with the tough streets of Compton, were teens when they began the group.
6. Actor Paul Giamatti has a hard row to hoe here.
Giamatti is an incredibly versatile and skilled actor who can do comedy, drama, and everything in between. His sweet spot is playing the schlub, the nerd, or the official who is the smartest person in the room (Sideways, John Adams on HBO, The Illusionist). Here, he has the thankless task of playing impresario Jerry Heller, who arguably helped the band achieve success just so he could take a heaping helping for himself. In the scheme of this movie, Heller is smart but Eazy-E is (belatedly) smarter. Giamatti is an excellent actor, but the film never really gives us a clear glimpse of Heller's motivations or connections.
7. The film is mysogynistic, but necessarily so.
The members of N.W.A. were not choirboys. They had a mindset toward women that was prevalent in that age and time, heavily influenced by pimp culture as defined in the wildly popular books of Iceberg Slim (read more about the writer's influence and works here and here). Did I like the party scenes with half-clad females engaging in public sex? No. Did I enjoy the scene where "Felicia" gets pushed into the hotel hall with barely a stitch on? No. But it's probably true to what was really going on at the time, and probably represented only the tip of that particular behavioral iceberg. Dre's treatment of women, specifically his beatdown of hip-hop journalist Dee Barnes, is not alluded to in this film. Considered in the context of the overall story that the director was trying to tell, and remembering that its protagonists are also its producers, I can see why it was excluded. A lot of incidents and episodes were excluded. But it would be fascinating to see another film that tells "The Dee Barnes Story."
8. Suge Knight was and is a scary dude.
His reputation was rough before Death Row and it only grew larger afterward. While I was living in Los Angeles covering music and radio, I was loath to cover any awards shows where I thought he might show up. Death Row-sponsored parties at the music conventions were events where one looked over one's shoulder constantly. Suge is currently facing charges over the death of a onetime friend associated with this film; Eazy's son has asserted in print that he believes Suge had something to do with his father's 1995 death. For Straight Outta Compton, director F. Gary Gray found a scary looking dude -- R. Marcos Taylor -- to play Suge with just the right balance of astute calculation and simmering menace.
9. The soundscape for the film is perfect.
What really makes it work is that the film not only uses the music of N.W.A. throughout, it also utilizes the output of other rap and R&B artists whose music was also in the market during those times. Heck, there's even rock and pop tunes included in the flick. We're treated to the classic N.W.A. "Boyz In Tha Hood," but also tracks by Roy Ayers Ubiquity, Tears For Fears, George Clinton, Zapp, Cherrelle, Steve Arrington, and Run-DMC . Understanding where music was at the time -- with a heavy reliance on synthesized sounds like the Roland TR-808 drum machine, but before heavy use of Autotune and the resurgence of acoustic sounds -- does much to convey how important the development of vocal rhyming as a musical instrument in itself was to hip-hop's rising popularity.
10. OK, so Straight Outta Compton is a pretty damned good movie.
Now you might say, "Yes, Captain Obvious, the film made box office history and continues to rake in the shekels! You are 2 thousand and late!"(Number one for three weeks at the domestic box office, Number One in the U.K.; $134 million in North America and counting). But we all know that popular movies are not always good movies. Though the film becomes a bit loose thematically (and factually) in its second half, director F. Gary Gray does a great job at establishing the time, the place, and the realities of Compton in the late '80s, thus setting up the environment that spawned N.W.A. and the group's uniquely hardcore approach to what had up to then been mostly an East Coast-focused phenomenon. From the opening scene that catches Eazy-E in a compromising episode, the film hurtles along at top speed, acquainting us with the main players and depicting the talents they possessed to leverage the popularity of rap music into something entirely their own.
I'm glad I saw it. I was initially trepidatious because N.W.A. represented a turn in hip-hop music that I personally didn't happen to like. But that doesn't take away from the fact that the group made a profound and indelible impact on musical history, that Eazy-E and Ice Cube were among the most engaging rap stylists on the mike, and that Dr. Dre proved to be a production wizard who, in addition to turning rap music on its head, singlehandedly raised the originators of funk music back to the legendary status they deserved.
Postscript: Hollywood is buzzing about a forthcoming Welcome To Death Row film, which would cover the founding and ultimate demise of the legendary label that made household names of Dr. De, Snoop Dogg, Tupac Shakur and others. The film would be based on a same-named documentary and book from 2001. The project is currently seeking a distributor. More here.
Follow me on Twitter at @wordsonflicks
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