The song remains the same

Rating: 6/10 (3 March 2016)

Remarkably the movie version of the rise, fall and redemption (at least of Dr. Dre) of the hyper-politicized, most radical musical artists of their time still follows a natural trajectory of fame you see in many other musical acts. Or to put it another way: "it used to be about the music, man!" "NWA" rose to prominence in the racial charged atmosphere of Los Angeles and tapped into a broad discontent about continuing disparate treatment throughout the U.S. Instead of writing metaphorical songs of protect, their lyrics directly challenged authority with blunt threats of violence. The movie, focused around founding member "Easy-E"'s brief life and experience with the group. Interestingly that group's experience follows a seemingly natural course you would find in other musical biopics such as "The Doors" where the band struggles together to break through and then quickly struggles against one another once successful and then finally struggles with drugs, drink and the hard partying that comes with the lifestyle. While the story feels to have fidelity to actual events in the pre-Kurt Cobain era, apparently, much of the misogyny and actual physical violence against women surrounding the band is reduced to a cheeky line "bye Alisha" as Ice Cube throws a woman out of a hotel room. Much has been made rightly over Ice Cube's son's performance as his father. Corey Hawkins neither physically or in mannerism quite nails Dr. Dre and R. Marcos Taylor never quite captures the natural intimidation that Suge Knight exudes. The writing and direction keep the story moving well across a long running time and juggles multiple subplots well as we see Ice Cube and Dre branch out from the group and become huge stars of their own. The music never quite comes to the forefront and plays a less prominent part of the film than similar biopics. Those looking for musical nostalgia are better off just buy the old albums. In short, while never bringing a lot of emotional resonance, the film captures a familiar pathway for a novel-for-their-times band.