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  • Reviews: Straight Outta Compton (2015)
  • 2015 Films

Reviews: Straight Outta Compton (2015)

Governing Committee August 13, 2015 4 minutes read

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straight_outta_compton

straight_outta_comptonHere are review links for this film submitted by our members:

  • [New – 2/25/16] | Marco Albanese @ Stanze di Cinema [Italian]
    • Excerpt: Solo per die hard fans.
  • Dragan Antulov @ FAK.hr
    • Excerpt: Daleko bolje funkcionira kao eskapisticko-nostalgicno korištenje price o momcima s dna koji su stigli do vrha, odnosno dva sata u kojima se gledatelj odmori od svijeta u kojemu su takve price prilicno rijetke.
  • Jason Bailey @ Flavorwire
    • Excerpt: It attempts to stuff the particulars of an influential artist (in this case, at least three of them) into a two-hours-and-change package, marching chronologically from rags to riches to trouble like a million biopics before it have; the dramatic constraints of that info dump requires dialogue that’s thuddingly expositional and frequently subtext-free; the supporting characters, with a couple of exceptions, would be charitably deemed one-dimensional. And yet, in spite of its many formal and structural flaws, ‘Straight Outta Compton’ works, because it does something more important and more interesting: it captures a moment, and positions its music at the center of that moment.
  • Nicholas Bell @ Ioncinema
  • Kevin Carr @ 7M Pictures
    • Excerpt: Overall, “Straight Outta Compton” is a well directed and powerful musical biopic with some great performances and a presentation that will make the fans go wild. It runs a bit too long, but that’s more from having to cover so much ground with the various members of the group than overstaying its welcome.
  • Laura Clifford @ Reeling Reviews
    • Excerpt: an incredibly ambitious musical biopic that illustrates how a hip hop group sparked a revolution, self-destructed, then regained its original bond.
  • Edwin Davies @ A Mighty Fine Blog
    • Excerpt: More than most biopics, Straight Outta Compton perfectly mirrors the arc of its subject: much like N.W.A., the film is at its best before they become millionaires.
  • M. Enois Duarte @ High-Def Digest.com
  • Mark Dujsik @ Mark Reviews Movies
    • Excerpt: Once the group as we originally know it from the movie’s story dissolves, so too does the movie’s narrative cohesion and, surprisingly, distinctiveness.
  • James Jay Edwards @ FilmFracture
  • Kimberly Gadette @ Doddle
    • Excerpt: It antagonizes. It provokes. Just like gangsta rap itself.
  • Sarah Gopaul @ Digital Journal
    • Excerpt: ‘Straight Outta Compton’ is an acceptable biopic chronicling the rise and fall of ‘80s rap group N.W.A., though it doesn’t delve too far beneath the surface.
  • Mark Hobin @ Fast Film Reviews
    • Excerpt: The movie gives a reason to care. The complex evolution of how influential artists popularized a burgeoning subgenre called gangsta rap, is frequently fascinating.
  • Blake Howard @ Graffiti With Punctuation
  • MaryAnn Johanson @ FlickFilosopher.com
    • Excerpt: The seething rage radiating from the screen elevates this above similar movies. But that rage is truncated in ways that are hard to ignore.
  • Charlie Juhl @ Citizen Charlie
    • Excerpt: Ice Cube said it best, “Speak a little truth and people lose their minds.”
  • Benjamin Kramer @ The Voracious Filmgoer
  • Kristin Dreyer Kramer @ NightsAndWeekends.com
  • Joe Lozito @ Big Picture Big Sound
    • Excerpt: This biopic doesn’t come close to matching the impact of the titular album, but the material is so riveting that it’s nearly enough.
  • Dan Lybarger @ KCActive.com
    • Excerpt: Director F. Gary Gray, an old friend and collaborator of NWA alumnus Ice Cube, delivers a biopic that’s consistently involving and either circumvents the clichés of the genre or gives them a feeling of authenticity they haven’t had in ages.
  • Alan Mattli @ Facing the Bitter Truth [German]
    • Excerpt: Expertly walks the line between riveting biographical cinema and searingly relevant social criticism.
  • Mike McGranaghan @ The Aisle Seat
  • Matthew McKernan @ FilmWhinge
    • Excerpt: Straight Outta Compton is a watchable film with some great moments, but it is tame when it should have been challenging.
  • Jason McKiernan @ Next Projection
    • Excerpt: There are some questionable omissions and questionable inclusions, but the film’s ultimate success lies in its larger-than-life audacity and its meditation on the most significant social message of this story: the unlikely rise out of suppression and poverty by speaking truth to power.
  • Simon Miraudo @ Student Edge
  • Jared Mobarak @ BuffaloVibe
  • Paulo Peralta @ CinEuphoria [Portuguese]
  • João Pinto @ Portal Cinema [Portuguese]
    • Excerpt: A fantastic film with a lot to offer!
  • Jason Pirodsky @ Expats.cz
    • Excerpt: Despite the storytelling flaws, Straight Outta Compton is supremely entertaining. It runs a snappy 2.5 hours and left me wanting more: more 2Pac and Suge Knight and Snoop Dogg, Ice Cube in Hollywood, Dre with 50 Cent and Eminem and making billions with Apple. The continuing saga of hip hop life after NWA would make for a great TV series.
  • Henry Stewart @ Cinepinion
    • Excerpt: On the film’s phony social relevance.
  • Frank Swietek @ One Guys Opinion
    • Excerpt: One can argue that this story might have been told with greater punch, more detail and less reliance on the tropes of the genre, but it’s still pretty solid and vivid as it is.
  • Sarah Ward @ artsHub

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