Straight Outta Compton Review

If it’s rough in places, with some cartoonish supporting characters and a tendency to dramatically overdo the emotional moments, there’s a persuasive energy and genuine passion to F. Gary Gray’s story of the explosion of N.W.A that makes its faults secondary. Parallels between the anger at police violence that drove N.W.A to record Straight Outta Compton in 1988 and current situations in America are obvious and treated with appropriate anger. It’s long but never feels indulgent because there’s a lot to pack in, from the rap group’s formation, to the release of an album that ignited its young audience and terrified police, to infighting, going solo, reunions and death. If the film is melodramatic it’s because the people it depicts lived melodramatically.