by Nathan Sacks Even by the standards of the musical biopic, Straight Outta Compton commits remarkable acts of historical revisionism. This is a sanitized, Hallmark, cookie cutter version of reality that is inexplicably being described as “unvarnished” and “uncompromising” by movie critics. Please. The film has several coats of varnish and features loads of artistic and dramatic compromises so glaring that parts of the film are unintentionally funny. In fact, SOC isn’t so much a biopic as it is a superhero film that treats Eazy-E, Ice Cube, and Dr. Dre (and only those three men) as epochal geniuses with only minor, overcomeable flaws. | Area Theaters Director: F. Gary Gray Producers: Matt Alvarez, Scott Bernstein, Ice Cube, Dr. Dre, David Engel, F. Gary Gray, Bill Straus, Tomica Woods-Wright Writers: Jonathan Herman, Andrea Berloff, S. Leigh Savidge (story), Alan Wenkus (story) Cinematographer: Matthew Libatique Editors: Billy Fox, Michael Tronick Music: Joseph Trapanese Cast: O'Shea Jackson Jr., Corey Hawkins, Jason Mitchell, Neil Brown Jr., Aldis Hodge, Marlon Yates Jr., R, Marcos Taylor Runtime: 147m. Genre: Biography/Drama/Music Country: USA US Theatrical Release: August 14, 2015 US Distributor: Universal Pictures |
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