Straight outta Compton and straight into the Oscar buzz. It’s early, and I guess this movie is forgotten about come Halloween time (just like most of the great films released in the first eight or nine months of each year are). Still, for right now, this movie is hot with audiences (over $100 million grossed after eight days) and critics (89% fresh on Rotten Tomatoes) as just about any other movie of the year. As I will explain in my review below, Straight Outta Compton didn’t do anything (besides the music itself) that was amazing on its own, but it did do just about everything well. I wouldn’t call it the surprise hit of the year as many other movies flew much further under the radar (Ex Machina and The Gift are the two that come to mind for me). Still, it was perhaps a movie that had the potential to be very good or very bad depending on the acting, which part of the story would be told, and, most importantly, the movie’s direction. I’ll talk more about F. Gary Gray (The Negotiator, The Italian Job) later in the review, but, long story short, he nailed it. Straight Outta Compton was his most challenging work to date and his most impressive and, while I think it’s an extreme long shot based on the history of the Academy and its voting, his name could still be swirling around as a dark horse for Best Director come December.

I am not sure how the film’s opening scene related to the rest of the movie, but I will say that I haven’t seen a more captivating opening scene yet this year. The first scene sets the tone for the film, but some audience might think about what they have gotten themselves into. I’ll be honest. I knew hardly anything about the N.W.A. before my viewing. I knew they were a rap group in the ’80s and ’90s. I knew about Ice Cube and Dr. Dre, but I did not know how these guys got their start. I honestly did not realize that they were even associated with each other. My exposure to both men came after they were each well-established as individuals, and while I do not listen to rap music, I appreciate any artist’s staying power. Both are legends in the industry. I know Ice Cube (Friday, Boyz N the Hood) more through his acting than I do his music. My first exposure to the man was when he starred in one of my favorite movies of all-time (Trespass) with Bill Paxton, Ice-T, and William Sadler. It’s ironic that when I saw this 1992 movie, I hadn’t heard of the men. I believe I saw movies like Boyz N the Hood, Aliens, and Next of Kin after Trespass (I saw Trespass in the theater with my grandmother!).

Dr. Dre (Corey Hawkins – Non-Stop, Iron Man 3), Ice Cube (O’Shea Jackson Jr. – Ice Cube’s actual son), and Eazy-E (Jason Mitchell – Contraband, Dragon Eyes) are the story, and you get to know the origins of each of these three men very, very well. We learn that Eazy-E is identified as the leading talent of the group because he is the lead rapper in most of the songs. Ice Cube writes a ton of the lyrics but gets less respect. And I think the idea of turntable mixing was a relatively new phenomenon at the time, so Dr. Dre probably didn’t receive the recognition at the start of his career that he might have received even a decade later. But N.W.A. itself, Dr. Dre was a pioneer in the industry. And the fact that he and Ice Cube are household names 20 years later says a lot.

There was enough backstory with how police officers treated the five guys to show where their genuine anger stemmed. And, to their credit, for the most part, they were able to harness this rage and put it towards their music. They weren’t the first group to go against authority, but they might have been the first to show absolutely no restraint. Jerry (Paul Giamatti – Sideways, Win-Win) signs on to be the group’s manager, but it’s sort of hard to get an accurate read on him. His intentions seem good, and he seems to know his job, but something doesn’t quite meet the eye. It’s not just the audience who notices this, but one or two of the other characters too.

Movies You Might Like If You Liked This Movie

• Boyz in the Hood
• 8 Mile
• Get Rich or Die Tryin’
• Hustle and Flow
• Get On Up