Straight Outta Compton (2015)

Straight Outta Compton is a 2015 American biographical musical crime drama film directed by F. Gary Gray, depicting the rise and fall of the gangsta rap group N.W.A and its members Eazy-E, Ice Cube, Dr. Dre, MC Ren, and DJ Yella. The members of N.W.A were involved in the production of the film, including Ice Cube and Dr. Dre as producers, as was Eazy-E's widow, Tomica Woods-Wright, while MC Ren and DJ Yella served as creative consultants. Ice Cube is played by his real-life son, O'Shea Jackson Jr., with Corey Hawkins as Dr. Dre and Jason Mitchell as Eazy-E. Paul Giamatti also stars as N.W.A's manager Jerry Heller.

Plot
In 1988, a groundbreaking new group revolutionizes music and pop culture, changing and influencing hip-hop forever. N.W.A's first studio album, "Straight Outta Compton," stirs controversy with its brutally honest depiction of life in Southern Los Angeles. With guidance from veteran manager Jerry Heller, band members Ice Cube (O'Shea Jackson Jr.), Dr. Dre (Corey Hawkins), Eazy-E, DJ Yella and MC Ren navigate their way through the industry, acquiring fame, fortune and a place in history.

Why It Rocks

 * 1) It follows the event of the rise and fall of the gangsta rap group N.W.A and its members Eazy-E, Ice Cube, Dr. Dre, MC Ren, and DJ Yella with endlessly relevant social commentary.
 * 2) The acting performance did a great and engaging job for doing that. The best example are O'Shea Jackson Jr., Corey Hawkins, Jason Mitchell, Neil Brown Jr., Aldis Hodge and even Paul Giamatti.
 * 3) The first half of the film is totally funny and inspirational to watch, as the cast share excellent chemistry with each other during rap tour sequences.
 * 4) Cinematography exhibits dynamic use of camera that remains in sync with what's unfolding on the screen for it is chaotic when things are on the verge of explosion & easygoing when dealing with calm moments.
 * 5) Fantastic music soundtrack that connects the story, since its a biopic about one of the greatest rap groups of all time.
 * 6) The scene where it shows the 1992 Los Angeles riots is almost accurate as communities tend to storm off the police while destroying local stores and businesses due to the extremely controversial decision of the case regarding the police beatings against Rodney King. The final act of the scene where the thugs hold the tied red (the color of the Bloods) and blue (the color of the Crips) bandanas in the front of guarding police shows a powerful message regarding unity of rival gangs or groups during times of crisis with injustice and inequality delivered from the government.
 * 7) The entire scene where the band listens to "No Vaseline" is hilarious. Besides the girls and random friends who were with them (who are laughing their asses off), Yella finds it pretty funny while Jerry has a full-on villainous breakdown. The rest of the group mostly just shrug it off, but it visibly gets to them as they listen to, which makes the contrast all the funnier when Heller goes berserk and everyone else reacts in a relatively relaxed manner. DJ Yella actually admits that's pretty much how they took it in real life in an interview, since to them there was no question that Cube had them beat.
 * 8) Intense and emotional scenes, like Eazy-E finding out that he has AIDS.
 * 9) *Everybody's reactions to Eazy's diagnosis. Tomika leaves the hospital room in tears at the stress of it all, Eazy is left alone in his bed and starts crying himself. When Ren and Yella come to visit, they try to tough it out, but eventually have to leave because it was too much to bear. Dre finally visits by the time Eazy is comatose, and starts talking to him as casually as he can, even when tears are streaming down his face. The only one who is never shown as visibly distraught is Cube, and even then, that's implied to only be because he can't bear to see his friend in a coma.

Bad Qualities

 * 1) Anachronism: 2Pac is seen at Death Row studios recording "Hail Mary" with Dre present near the end of the movie, and Eazy is still alive. In real life, Dre had already left Death Row before the Don Killuminati sessions, and Eazy already died from complications caused by AIDS.
 * 2) *Eazy-E is shown wearing his iconic White Sox cap in 1986. Unfortunately, said cap design didn't exist before 1991. Eazy did sport that hat in Real Life, but it was after N.W.A's breakup and shortly before his death.
 * 3) R. Marcos Taylor's casting with Suge Knight as well as his performance is questionable. Lakieth Stanfield, despite his good performance as Snoop Dogg, is also questionable due to his size and different skin tone.
 * 4) *Years later, most people would even say that the actor Dominic L. Santana from All Eyez on Me and the TV show Unsolved: The Murders of Tupac and the Notorious B.I.G surpasses R. Marcos Taylor, and that Santana should had been casted as Knight in this film before.
 * 5) *Snoop Dogg, while praising Stanfield's performance, stated in a interview that he previously wanted Nipsey Hussle to play him as he had strikingly similar mannerisms and height, but Hussle declined as he did not want to introduce himself to the world as someone who played the famous rapper from the 90s.
 * 6) The meeting scene between Eazy-E and Suge Knight is also completely questionable, as several acquaintances and known ones of Eazy had stated in interviews that Eazy had a reputation which marked him as one of the (if not the most) notorious Crip gangsters before and during his rap career, so the thugs (which were Bloods, a rival gang) under Knight cannot be able to lay a single punch on Eazy. Therefore, if anything happened to Eazy, then something was gonna happen to Knight.
 * 7) False advertising: Despite the promotions and posters that tended to show the whole N.W.A. and their successful careers, this entire film is basely made on making Dr. Dre look extremely good in the movie and real life to avoid facing problems from the past during the late 80s-mid 90s, while the film pointed out only a couple of major flaws of Dr. Dre.
 * 8) *Misleading title: Despite the title of the film being about a group of rappers coming from a local city within Southern California, the second half of the film mostly tells about major independent successes of Dr. Dre and Ice Cube while everyone else in Ruthless were going downhill, especially that Ruthless and the remaining members of the N.W.A. were relying on marijuana deals to keep the business going.
 * 9) *Dr. Dre in the film was shown as a heroic and selfless individual doing whatever it takes to commence his career, which is true, but the real-life personality and methods of Dr. Dre were the complete opposite of what the rapper was in the film.
 * 10) *Additionally, Eazy-E fans, some rappers, and historians pointed out their major criticisms against the film, stating that Eazy-E never cried while driving past the billboard promoting The Chronic album, and he was never a failure following the departure of Ice Cube and Dr. Dre from the N.W.A. To make things worse, the film completely omitted the feud between Eazy-E and Dr. Dre, including their diss tracks "Fuck Wit Dre Day" and "Real Muthaphuckkin G's" which the latter won.
 * 11) *The scene that showed the final phone conversation between Eazy-E and Dr. Dre is not accurate as Dr. Dre was never completely committed in reuniting the N.W.A.
 * 12) *The film completely omitted his ex-wife Michel'le, their past marriage, and their inner complications as Dr. Dre would physically and verbally beat her constantly in private and even in public on some occasions. That action caused for Michel'le to produce a film called Surviving Compton: Dre, Suge & Michel'le that tells their side of the story as well as her early career.

Reception
On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 89% based on 247 reviews, with an average rating of 7.40/10. The site's consensus reads, "Straight Outta Compton is a biopic that's built to last, thanks to F. Gary Gray's confident direction and engaging performances from a solid cast." On Metacritic, it has a weighted average score of 72 out of 100, based on 41 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews". On CinemaScore, audiences gave the film an average grade of "A" on an A+ to F scale, while PostTrak-surveyed audiences gave the film a rare 5 out of 5 stars and a 75% "definite recommend".