Intense and compelling

Rating: 8/10 (29 August 2015)

This is a great film. The detail and the effort that been put in here is superb and it's wonderful to see.
Each of the actors is well chosen, credible and presents their chosen character in convincing manner.
The actors that play Dre and Ice-Cube are particularly compelling, but it seems wrong to overlook the portrayal of Easy-E.
This is explosive stuff straight out of the blocks and it never feels slow. It's a long film too, but it keeps you right there. I went to see it in the cinema with my wife and she'd just worked a night shift - she didn't fall asleep and she thought she probably would. That is a pretty good test for a movie.
The menacing figure of Shug Knight comes right off the screen too. The drama is both incredible but so real.
Laced within this film are real messages too - freedom of speech messages, racial discrimination messages, police brutality messages - which are really important because they were and are part of our times.
The big message is though - these five guys came from nowhere, a place where there is less than nothing to share - but with their own gifts, their creativity, their musicality - they left their mark on the world. It just shows that, it's always there waiting to happen, something new and unexpected, out of nowhere. The political elite can't ever stop that, it can't be smothered.
This is a great film that holds the torch for the power of creativity and self belief - the ability to over come it all.
Final mention - easy to overlook - this film is bringing NWA to a whole new generation who don't know about them. After the film was over I was waiting for my wife (bathroom) and I asked this young guy if he remembered any of the events he'd seen on the screen. He shook his head and said 'No, I'm only 16'.
Great film. RIP EASY-E.