Many people keep asking me why I’m not predicting Straight Outta Compton for Universal’s big Oscar play. They’ve had an insanely successful year, with Jurassic World a hair’s breath away from beating Titanic’s box office take to become the second highest grossing film of the year. They’ve got Straight Outta Compton, about the roots of the hip hop movement in Los Angeles, with an African American director at the helm. And they’ve got Steve Jobs, which took a hit at the box office, there is no denying it. That doesn’t mean the film is off the Oscar list, however. It could mean that. But it could also mean that voters feel like supporting a film that at least partly aims for the kind of Hollywood they want to support – leaning heavily on the core values: writing, directing, acting. So does Straight Outta Compton but that one comes with its own problems.
First, it’s worth noting that Scott Feinberg launched his Feinberg Forecast, which essentially shows he’s thinking, like I’m thinking, like David Poland is thinking, that The Martian is the film to beat. He has two movies in front of it: The Revenant and Joy, also from Fox. So that’s three films in the top three slots from Fox? Yeah, probably unlikely all three will be in there but no one knows which ones will be in or out – we think The Martian is in, but we don’t know. Since no one has yet seen The Revenant or Joy you have to scratch those off your list for now as unknowns. That inadvertently leaves The Martian in first place.
What’s more interesting about Feinberg’s list is that he’s going for Straight Outta Compton 100% over Steve Jobs, even including F. Gary Grey in the Best Director lineup.
Straight Outta Compton got bad reviews from the New York Times and the LA Times. Its reception was middling from critics. On the other hand, Straight Outta Compton made a shit ton of money, $161 million and received an A from Cinemascore. Word has it that the Academy liked it. It comes with its own share of controversy, however, and dismissing Steve Jobs because of box office would a similar kind of handicap that Straight OUtta Compton has – namely, that they didn’t include Dr. Dre’s hard core abuse. This is an ongoing topic amid the rise of hip hop, what it did to women – and how much of that attitude continues to taint the movement that should be a point of pride for the community. Dr. Dre has apologized and come clean. He did what he could to make it right but whether or not that will hover over the film’s Oscar chances is a different story. Its best chance right now is that no one thinks of it as an Oscar contender, which has kept the think pieces away. But if it gets anywhere near being glorified? I’m not sure it will go over too well. Here is a sample quote from The Guardian:
“That event isn’t depicted in Straight Outta Compton, but I don’t think it should have been, either. The truth is too ugly for a general audience,” she wrote. “But what should have been addressed is that it occurred … Like many of the women that knew and worked with NWA, I found myself a casualty of Straight Outta Compton’s revisionist history.”
She added: “In his lyrics, Dre made hyperbolic claims about all these heinous things he did to women. But then he went out and actually violated women. Straight Outta Compton would have you believe that he didn’t really do that. It doesn’t add up.”
Conversely, Steve Jobs is being attacked for being TOO HARD on Jobs. It’s being attacked by people who work at Apple now, even. Funny thing about that, though? The Alex Gibney Jobs makes the Danny Boyle Jobs seem like an angel. Controversy is never good for an Oscar contender. At the end of the day, though, it probably just comes down to how much voters like the movie.
It seems likely that one of these will get in for Universal’s record year at the box office and with visionary work like Steve Jobs. I myself do not yet see the Straight Outta Compton inclusion in the Oscar race but it’s not impossible. It would go a long way towards balancing out the diversity problem at the Oscars.
Here are the FYC ads for Straight Outta Compton.
