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Straight Outta Compton Provokes Thought

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Himani Parekh/Staff Reporter

Directed by Felix Gary Gray, Straight Outta Compton is the story of five young artists who told their truth through music, a truth filled with police brutality, gang violence, instability, and bravado. Their story is not a charmer; it lacks the fairytale highs and lows of the typical artist biopic because their story, told through rap, was not a fairytale. The movie seeks to go beyond the music to the source: the reasons, the environment, and the characters that converged to result in the controversial but musically powerful NWA.

In content, the movie is compelling. Starting with the jarring reality of a police raid, the plot threads through the artists’ lives to their beginning as a group, climbs to the height of their first album, and meanders through the sluggish dissolution and back to reconciliation. Innately human problems, ranging from death and loss to betrayal and distrust, plague the group even at its height, but the undercurrents of violence and police brutality stemming from life in an unprivileged area are less universal, and the tendency of some to sweep those details then, and now, make the movie not only relevant but also worthwhile. Straight Outta Compton is not interested in romanticizing or cutesifying.

However, while not completely accurate, as no biopic realistically can be, the movie does occasionally feel more like a history textbook or a bio on a facts page than a movie. Jumping from moment to moment, the movie, with the exception of perhaps the opener and few other instances, rarely digs itself into a scene enough to drag you with it. Having an overarching thread other than that of the rise and fall of NWA is almost conspicuously avoided; though subjects such as the cultural atmosphere of Compton, the backgrounds of the artists, or police brutality crop up as part of the narrative, they slip by just as easily, no lingering, no moment for comment. Scrawled text indicating location and year used primarily in the first half of the movie feel more like quick-fix scene setters to cover up abrupt transitions; the decision to follow multiple members’ storylines, though admirable, could have been executed better, although the actors do a fabulous job of bringing each person to life. The music, of course, is impeccable and quite well integrated into the flow of the movie.

Despite its flaws, Straight Outta Compton is well worth the watch. It is a story of raw truth and human nature, of controversy and gumption, of environment affecting individuals and individuals affecting environment. Straight Outta Compton will leave you with something better than the latest pop confection rattling in your head and maybe a second thought about past and present.


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