Cultural Impact of N.W.A.

Rating: 8/10 (12 October 2015)

Straight Outta Compton is a biopic about one of the most influential hip hop groups and also a remarkable history about how their music became the voice of how unfair young African-American people are being treated. When it centers how this group impacts the music industry and the American culture, it's all downright interesting. But when the story shifts to a more personal outlook, the movie somewhat struggles juggling these other stories, which sometimes get lost from what is supposed to be the center. But it still pictures this story compellingly which alone made it intriguing to watch.
The movie opens exploring their ordinary lives until it leads to forming the group they are now known for; from their rap music, they could represent their home, their lifestyle and also the awareness of law enforcement's oppression towards arresting young black men, which results with an outrage from the authority, while at the same time more people defending them and their music; with a studio wanting to make them bigger. The impact of their music is the strongest part to look around in this story, but when things get personal, it takes things to a lot of different directions, sometimes away from the center to talk more about the business in this industry and their other issues. These interconnected subplots can be interesting, except it's less easy to concentrate and also robs the supposed momentum.
It's still well put together when you're just trying to comprehend the time it recreated. There's no apparent good guys or bad guys, we're basically seeing shades of gray within these people; even the ones who are supposed to be antagonized are given some sympathy (except for the police, probably.) Either way, there's real engaging humanity being presented in this biopic. The direction makes it look stunning to watch. Jason Mitchell, Corey Hawkins and O'Shea Jackson Jr. did a well job as the three leading roles, though Mitchell as Eazy-E is the real standout among them.
Maybe the only major disappointment can be mentioned is the ending; sure it's meant to be emotional, but it's rather rushes, even to how it was setup, which failed to contemplate on the situation, plus being sneaked in with some more subplots. It would have been more powerful, but either way, Straight Outta Compton is a pretty good biopic, whatever it covers or not. Again, the influence of the group is the remarkable feat of the entirety; while the personal stuff hints some intrigue, it could have given a consistent rhythm to handle these stories all at once. Though it's still not all bad, because again, it's put with great effort into it.