Straight Outta Compton - The Motion Picture

yeah, i didn't mean to suggest there weren't other factors like that, i just thought the difference in audience base was sorta remarkable.

Also, and I mentioned this upthread, but Universal is the only studio right now doing a good job making and marketing blockbuster movies centered around women and people of color. They've had 7 big hits this year; 5 of those 7 are Pitch Perfect 2, 50 Shades of Grey, Trainwreck, Furious 7, and Straight Outta Compton.

The appeal of these films is of course very broad! It's why they made so much money! I guess the point I'm making is that there's only one studio that actually is using its resources in such a way to make an NWA movie a blockbuster. Other studios would have been too blinkered to make this project the success it ended up being.

honestly you could say universal is the only studio doing a good job of making and marketing movies for adults

or rather, adult-oriented. obv marvel/pixar stuff is big with adults too.

xxxpost - cant imagine dre or cube wanting a reunion in the mid 90s but they did both record natural born killers around 1996 iirc, so im guessing they didnt hate each others guts at that point

yeah, was really curious about the stuff regarding the reunion - in the movie, they actually show Yella playing a track he'd worked on for it, and I was wondering if that was real, or they just invented it (or made concrete something that may have been much more up in the air irl) for the narrative of the movie. Would def be into hearing unreleased NWA stuff!

i think they ran their course tbh. unless they have archive stuff that was never released, im not interested in hearing any new NWA songs, esp if theyre like chin check. also dont know why they need a replacement for eazy - they could just keep going as a trio (plus yella obv)

cant imagine dre or cube wanting a reunion in the mid 90s but they did both record natural born killers around 1996 iirc, so im guessing they didnt hate each others guts at that point

I remember there being press around the time of Eazy's death that they had all reconciled

I really did enjoy watching this movie but it was so superficial and zero-depthy that it felt like people acting out a Wikipedia article. It taught me that a bunch of kids liked making music and then made some music and then got discovered and went on tour and became famous and then also fought sometimes (i.e. the story of virtually every famous band). Where the fuck were Yella or Ren besides appearing on screen simply because they had to be there for the movie to make sense? Where was all the depth and personal relationship stuff and why was so much stuff brought up once but then like never explored again [i.e. NWA not being able to form because some other group would get mad but then forming anyway, Snoop walking in Death Row flagging blue and ppl getting kinda mad but then it never being addressed explain how it was resolved really, etc, etc, etc]

Basically it just made me want to watch a bunch of other documentaries or read a bunch of other stuff to get some insight into what *actually* happened, also HSB hilariously OTM abt oversimplification, like oh here let me just stumble upon the G Thang riff while Snoop just happens to meander downstairs with all of these great lyrics ready to go

otm

also it was amusing to see how fucking batshit Death Row was and I really doubt it was embellished all that much

Dee Barnes has published her reflections on the time and film via Gawker

http://gawker.com/heres-whats-missing-from-straight-outta-compton-me-and-1724735910

it just made me want to watch a bunch of other documentaries

there are not really any good docs about LA rap of this period that I know of but let me know if you find some

Is there a way to read Gawker articles without sending them traffic?

Ask someone to copy/paste, I guess. But you really should read it.

Pretty much all biopics are bad and dumb, and it probably doesn't help when two of the subjects of the biopic are also producers.

I am getting less interested in this the more reviews come in

I mean I love the subject matter but I hate biopics so this would have to offer something more than that to grab me and it kinda sounds like it does not

idk the description of that 'that's what a fool believes loggins! that's what...a fool believes. *cue music*' moment has me pretty stoked for whenever i dvr this thing off cable.

If you're still not wanting to click through, perhaps this will help.

F. Gary Gray, the man whose film made $60 million last weekend as it erased my attack from history, was also behind the camera to film the moment that launched that very attack. He was my cameraman for Pump It Up! You may have noticed that Gary has been reluctant to address N.W.A.’s misogyny and Dre’s attack on me in interviews. I think a huge reason that Gary doesn’t want to address it is because then he’d have to explain his part in history. He’s obviously uncomfortable for a reason.

Is there a way to read Gawker articles without sending them traffic?

― Jersey Al (Albert R. Broccoli), Tuesday, August 18, 2015 9:40 PM (26 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

whole article here: http://pastebin.com/b64dPxKa

xxpost to stevie & shakey

Welcome to Death Row (2001) is p good. Not much abt nwa but lots abt Suge & Dre.

They're rereleasing it ondemand on some cable providers but u can find it on youtube/dailymotion

I remember there being press around the time of Eazy's death that they had all reconciled

― Οὖτις, Tuesday, August 18, 2015 5:42 PM (4 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Dre and Cube reconciled fairly quickly. Natural Born Killaz was on the Murder was the Case Soundtrack which came out in 1994.

Wikipedia claims it was originally written for that N.W.A. project but uhhhhhh there's no sourcing for that so idk

oh here let me just stumble upon the G Thang riff while Snoop just happens to meander downstairs with all of these great lyrics ready to go

― Y Kant Max Read (Stevie D(eux)), Tuesday, August 18, 2015 7:52 PM (2 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

hahaha I almost listed that example too. Like he's been sitting there frustrated for hours trying to come up with a sine-wave riff and just hits on it at that exact moment? It's like man, you can show them rehearsing it without showing us how you came up with every idea!

Is there a way to read Gawker articles without sending them traffic?

"Hustle and Flow" did a great job of showing process/minutia of building a song in a way that felt organic. A rare example among movies about music as a whole. It's definitely something storytellers don't succeed at. .

You guys are holding this movie to a standard I've never actually seen pulled off in any biopic. I'm sure I might have found things to pick apart in the Brian Wilson movie too, but that's only because I know a lot about it already. As someone who likes NWA, but didn't know a ton about them other than really obvious stuff, I found this movie not only entertaining, but really informative -- ESPECIALLY about how the personalities of Eazy E, Dre and Ice Cube factored into the group forming, performing and eventually disbanding. The acting was really good IMO, believable, and I wouldn't be surprised if Mitchell, in particular, got an Oscar nod (at least for supporting role).

Sure, even to me, it felt like things HAD to have been glossed over, but it's a general audience movie, as much as I've seen I've seen it described as "for fans only". Fans may stand to enjoy it most, but to me it seems like a well-made, relatively in-depth movie for PEOPLE WHO DON'T ALREADY KNOW EVERYTHING. My criticisms of it were that it was about 20 mins too long, the ending was anticlimactic, and the bit about the reunion seemed a bit too-good-to-be-true/convenient for a happy ending (unless it really was true).

Regarding the stuff about Dre's woman-beating -- yes, I've read this many places. I heard there was a 3.5 hour edit of this that may become part of a director's cut, and that was to include more details about Dre's relationships.

lol not likely

Dre's never displayed the requisite humility/contrition/penchant for self-examination that would make him OK scenes in the movie of him being a woman-beating misogynist, I expect it would undermine his character's ability to function as a likable protagonist

I still liked it, I just felt like the movie became decidedly less interesting once they finished the part where Dre left the group. Pacing slowed way down, Cube disappears for far too long, Dre's scenes get broad-strokey, etc.

Regarding the stuff about Dre's woman-beating -- yes, I've read this many places. I heard there was a 3.5 hour edit of this that may become part of a director's cut, and that was to include more details about Dre's relationships.

That seems a touch on the wish-fulfillment side, honestly.

regardless of length, Dee Barnes detail is one that could have (and should have) been included, considering some of the unnecessary stuff that was touched on in the last hour. I got a little annoyed how Dre was portrayed as the "white knight" amongst Death Row, as if he wasn't caught up in it himself for a little while.

Also Dominique, more to the point perhaps, are you SURE you want to dismiss it all that way when the subject of said notorious assault just published an explicit piece referencing that as well as the film's director's involvement?

I found it v lol that Dre came off as the sensitive gentle "just in it for the music" dude

like oooookay

Regarding the stuff about Dre's woman-beating --

I understand the film also leaves out Eazy's woman-beating -- but does it take a firm position one way or the other on his potential pussy-eating?

he's actually portrayed as an amphibious creature without genitalia

I had a friend who knew Eazy-E pre-fame and she said he was a total sweet, funny guy (oddly). She was sorta nuts herself but eh who isnt

being a sweet and funny guy would sure help him get laid as much as he did, so idk that that is odd necessarily? can still be that and a gat totin hardass etc

yeah but according to that one lady on "8-Ball" his breath smelled

lool

I'm watching this tomorrow. I'll settle the matter.

Cool thx!

I dug this piece. Grantland's Wesley Morris wrote about his history with the band and how disappointed he is with what the movie is vs what it could have been:

http://grantland.com/hollywood-prospectus/straight-outta-compton-review-ice-cube-dr-dre/

The breakdown of the group produces the occasional LOL moment, like when Ice Cube’s wife, Kimberly Woodruff (Alexandra Shipp), hears that Eazy called her husband “Benedict Arnold” on N.W.A’s “Message to B.A.” and asks, “Is he trying to call you a traitor?” Which is almost like having a female character in a football movie inquire as to what a touchdown is.

[...]

But the most distressing LAPD run-in happens during a recording session in beachy Torrance, a city just south and west of Compton with scarcely a black resident. The guys have broken for lunch when a handful of cops descend upon them. The suddenness of the takedown is clumsily staged, but Gray maintains his composure, and the boldness sticks with you. The presiding officer is black and speaks to Dre and Eazy and the gang with the hateful disregard typically used in the movies by white officers. The power of the encounter comes at you from all sides. Heller’s outrage feels like disillusionment. He really can’t understand what’s happening. He sees his partners stomach-down on the pavement, and it hurts him. He tells the officer that these young men are artists — rappers — to which the cop replies that rap’s not an art. It’s the exact opposite racial position in which Giamatti found himself in 12 Years a Slave, where the trader he played acquired and sold black bodies with cold-blooded hauteur. Here he’s seething over their mistreatment, and it’s the rare example the movies have in which white people’s speaking on behalf of black people rocks you — because when these black men try to speak for themselves, no one’s listening. You know what “eureka” songwriting moment that confrontation will produce, and you can’t wait to see it happen. You crave the anger and defiance of that song.

Also Dominique, more to the point perhaps, are you SURE you want to dismiss it all that way when the subject of said notorious assault just published an explicit piece referencing that as well as the film's director's involvement?

Hey Ned, not dismissing! Just that I read that part of Dre could show up in a director's cut. Who knows tho...

I also remember the Benedict Arnold line, and thought it was unnecessary. *I* thought it was unnecessary, but chalked it up to this movie (like a LOT of others) being made for a general audience, and the fact that some high school kid might not actually know who Benedict Arnold is. That's the thing -- I'm not saying "writing down" in this way is right for films, it just happens so much, it's almost like a convention I have to accept in Hollywood movies if I want to enjoy anything.

Based on how dre has been described to be represented in the film, going to be very surprised if his violent assault of dee Barnes was filmed but cut for time. And even if it was, that's still something that's more than valid to critique.

I'll be the third person in this thread to rep for Wesley Morris's Grantland review which is not only absolutely dead-on about the movie's shortfalls and victories, it's also some the most perceptive writing about N.W.A's music and its ambiguous legacy that I've ever read.

"I heard there was a 3.5 hour edit of this that may become part of a director's cut, and that was to include more details about Dre's relationships."

'now with extra domestic violence!'

i wouldnt hold my breath for a directors cut. im still waiting on a django unchained and spike lee oldboy directors cut.

all biopics suck in some way, anyway. cant imagine this being any different. esp as its about NWA. its trying to give a group with THAT name and THOSE songs the same treatment as elvis and brian wilson (love and mercy is one of the best music biopics ive seen though, fwiw.. maybe a future nwa biopic will look at dre's life from when he was in nwa and hitting women to when he was under suge knights power and trying to leave death row)