When Gray focuses on greed and race, Straight Outta Compton becomes a classy addition to the genre

Rating: 8/10 (16 October 2015)

F. Gary Gray proves himself worthy of standing above most musical biopic directors with his undeniable Passionate, occasionally stirring and throughly engaging Straight Outta Compton. The film studies the stratospheric rise of N.W.A, a group whose names I'd heard of but whose cultural impact remained elusive to me. Gray, who I'd only ever heard of as the director of stoner comedy Friday, proves himself a directorial force to be reckoned with in his film which boasts at least four or five hugely powerful scenes. Scenes of police racism are among the scenes best, depicted with such flagrant injustice that I wanted to leap from my seat and rail against them. In one particularly powerful scene, a black police officer leads his white colleagues in demeaning NWA for doing nothing but standing on the sidewalk. For some reason, hearing racial slurs come from a man who should be your brother makes them so much more hurtful.
Gray gathers a stellar and relatively novice cast for his film. Honourable mention should go to the huge menacing R. Marcos Taylor as Suge Knight, who manages to win over the audience as a gentle giant before revealing his hulking bullying nature. Paul Giamatti was incredible in Love & Mercy, but I think he's just as good if not better here - those guttural Giamatti Yells fit in beautifully during police harassment scenes and he has one "Oscar scene" at the very end of the film, where despite all of our knowledge, he almost convinces us of how he sees himself.
Biggest props goes to Jason Mitchell, O'Shea Jackson Jr. and Corey Hawkins as the three main NWA guys. Mitchell is incredible as Easy-E (with an incredible Oscar scene when he learns of his AIDS diagnosis), Jackson a near-perfect embodiment of his famous father (especially as the film ages him throughout) but my favourite performance of all was Hawkins as Dr. Dre. I know that Dre in particular was saint-ified during the making of the film, with many of his less savoury traits dialed back or erased altogether, but looking at Hawkins' performance alone I was blown away. Hawkins' carries grief, mirth and furious reckoning with equal class and poise, making him the character I most enjoyed watching.
The movie has no lack of enjoyable standalone scenes, but sometimes I felt a bit stretched thin - the Rodney King subplot in particular felt very shoehorned into the story. Easy-E's sex life is really only ever hinted at and therefore his AIDS diagnosis comes not surprisingly but undeveloped. Dre's romance felt much the same. I also never felt passionately invested in the musical side of the story - but perhaps that's just because I can't stand the stuff. Its when Gray and his screenwriters focus on money, greed and race that the film becomes something very special. I certainly know enough about film to recognise Gray's work as a classy addition to the genre, certainly above more dull fare like Walk the Line.
Twist my arm for my favourite scene though and I'd change my mind every few minutes. Its the scene where Dre confronts Suge's posse in the recording studio. No, wait, its the scene where they sing "Fuck Tha Police" in rebellion against censorship. No, its the TV interview where Cube shreds the ambitious reporter. No, wait, its Cube smashing up Bryan Turner's office! Argh!