The term “biopic” has turned into a dirty word for a lot of moviegoers and critics alike. The assumption, of course, is that the story at hand will follow the tropes of the genre so closely that the resulting tale will end up leaving audiences with a sense of déjà vu and ultimately the inability to distinguish the film they’ve just seen from many other just like it. That stigma may be even stronger for releases covering the lives of popular musical artists, as Oscar-winning films like Ray and Walk the Line – both solid in their own right – have demonstrated a certain template of personal struggle set against the creation of indelible music. Somehow, Straight Outta Compton both conforms to these standards and transcends them into something perhaps greater than moviegoers might expect.

Opening in the streets of the southern California city of Compton, the film follows a small group of inner-city youth and the meteoric rise that they encounter once they form the pioneering hip hop group known as N.W.A. Together, Ice Cube (O’Shea Jackson Jr.), Dr. Dre (Corey Hawkins) and Eazy-E (Jason Mitchell) – along with DJ Yella (Neil Brown Jr.) and MC Ren (Aldis Hodge) – find themselves trading in the mean streets of their old neighborhood for the complexities of the music business – an industry that they ultimately change the face of forever – and a new manager (Paul Giamatti) who may or may not have the group’s best intentions at heart.

Set during the late 1980s and early 1990s, Straight Outta Compton isn’t afraid to tackle a number of hot-button issues right from the start. The state of race relations and freedom of expression are well-documented highlights of N.W.A.’s emergence into the world of music, and the film – buoyed by stellar lead performances from Jackson, Hawkins and Mitchell – does a solid job infusing these larger themes in its own themes as well as the personal journeys of its three leads. Moreover, if the infamous Suge Knight (R. Marcos Taylor) isn’t the modern equivalent of a hip hop Darth Vader, one can only imagine the villain who can claim that title.

While Mitchell and Hawkins are perhaps dealt some of the most emotionally driven moments in the film, Jackson’s performance comes equipped with its own set of challenges, least of which is the fact that the young actor is playing his own father in the film. Throughout, they embody their respective characters with ease and charisma, as the film establishes the specific skill set that each member contributes to this genuine super-group. While Brown and Hodge are short-changed as the other two core members of N.W.A., the film’s focus appears to be more on context between the group’s music and the world that gave birth to their art (the Rodney King incident is prominently featured, for instance).

“Speak a little truth and people lose their minds,” Ice Cube says at one point. Ironically, while Straight Outta Compton focuses on the dark truth about what the adversity N.W.A. members experienced both in their childhood and during their reign as hip hop giants, it does gloss over some of the less positive elements in the lives of both Ice Cube and Dr. Dre. Considering that both men are producers on the film, a certain amount of revisionist history is perhaps unsurprising here. Still, it’s a bit hypocritical of a film espousing the importance of free speech and honesty to selectively honor that sentiment.

More than just another biopic, Straight Outta Compton works best as a time capsule of the age that led to N.W.A.’s rise to fame and the symbiotic relationship between their real-life struggles and the music they created. One continues to feed into another in the film – a truth that memorably plays out during the group’s reaction to an Ice Cube diss record called “No Vaseline” (use your imagination), and director F. Gary Gray vibrantly brings the epic story, its larger-than-life personalities and social commentary are just as resonant today as they were when the titular album first took the world by storm.

Rating: 4 out of 5

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