Straight Outta Compton

Straight Outta Compton (2015) covers the forming, the fame and the breaking up of N.W.A. At the end of the eighties a group of young men in Compton make records describing exactly what is happening around them. Radio will not play them but they sell. Then a track about their dealings with the police brings a letter from the FBI, which makes the group larger still. The best section is the Detroit concert: the police forbid them from performing that song and they perform it. The second half is the dissolution: money, a manager, contracts, and turning on each other. O'Shea Jackson Jr. plays his father, Ice Cube. He went through normal auditions and got it after a process lasting close to two years. Ice Cube and Dr. Dre were among the producers, and the criticism came from there: the account largely leaves out Dre's history of violence against women. After release Dre issued a statement of apology. During production a casting notice also caused an argument; it sorted female extras into categories by race and appearance, and the company apologised. Because the music rights were in hand, the tracks appear in full, which is rare in music biographies. It took far more than anyone expected. It runs 147 minutes. Good for: music biography, hip hop, and America in the eighties and nineties. Less good for: the film is partisan and omits things; the language and violence are heavy.