When Straight Outta Compton dropped, earned good reviews and made a ton of money, its success was chased by valid rumblings that the film failed to address the abuse of women at the hands of Dr. Dre. At first it seemed as though that negative angle would undercut its substantial positive aspects and that perhaps the film’s success or failure would be defined by this oversight. It would be easy to dismiss this issue as an agenda latched onto by activists who expect our art to somehow rectify the wrongs of modern day culture and to fix our checkered history, too. So many eruptions like this seem to do little more than burden films with unfair baggage.
But F. Gary Gray’s most excellent, vibrant celebration of the rise and revolution of hip hop music has a right to tell an uplifting story that exists above and beyond the bad behavior of any individual participants. How many beloved films have shown us legendary facets of white history and avoided the unseemly details? Hell, decades of westerns and frontier heroes gloss over far worse atrocities, not to mention Gone with the Wind. To confront the abuse and mistreatment of women in the music industry and the overall celebrity culture of the era is an important subject worthy of a whole movie unto itself — and I hope someone makes that movie. This story, however, is about something different. It’s about how raw talent, drive and ambition triumphed over oppression, poverty, racism and burgeoning police brutality.
Straight Outta Compton follows the trajectory of several notable figures that helped launch the hip hop music revolution from from 1986 and through the 1990s, specifically NWA (“Niggaz Wit Attitudes”) with Dr. Dre, Ice Cube, Eazy E, Arabian Prince, MC Ren, and DJ Yella. I’m not going to sit here and pretend I know everything about hip hop. I listened to NWA back in the day but I was by no means well-versed in the ways of the music or the movement. This is what I most love about Gray’s film — it is a valuable piece of American history that illuminates a world I knew nothing about, examines grim commonplace struggles that I had little idea existed — serious concerns and seething hostilities occurring every day that most people I knew never faced, blithely unaware of what was happening a few miles across town. It’s all over the news now, day in and day out, with high profile egregious brutality and outright murders of young black men captured on video nationwide, launching the full impassioned force of the Black Lives Matter movement. But back in the 1980s and 1990s white culture didn’t really find out about this sickness until the Rodney King beating in 1991 and the subsequent uprising a year later when the cops walked away scot-free.
If Straight Outta Compton was only about the story of street kids who turned their lives around it wouldn’t be one of the best films of the year. Yes, it’s about the music, the drugs, the sex, the parties – but far more importantly, it’s about the message in the music, the rousing power of the lyrics, and how talent can be the salvation in a world that offers up nothing but closed doors.
The music — even for a know-nothing like me — is so unbelievably good that it pounds hard and fast past conventional attachments; we have no choice but to surrender to that insistent beat. Yes, even with all the brute shouts about “bitches and hos” riddled throughout. Who can forget how Do the Right Thing opened? Gray captures the spirit of the music, the anger in the lyrics in magnificently recreated concert footage, focusing tightly on the inspirations the music drew from and vividly reminding us how far ahead of their time NWA really was.
Growing up in white LA, my friends and I mostly stayed outta Compton. How strange to live such separate, segregated lives in a supposedly progressive city. The music eventually spread and took over and changed America’s music landscape, as innovative black artists have done throughout our cultural history. How many cultural appropriations have there been? I’ve lost count by now — white culture is notorious for taking something black artists invented and then raking in the profits by repackaging and selling it to white audiences. It’s time to really give credit where credit is due for the birth of hip hop in American culture and no film has ever done it better than Straight Outta Compton.
The reason the Academy should consider Straight Outta Compton for Best Picture is because it’s an important story about our collective history and rips into the ongoing national narrative of racial conflict that continues to divide us — latent conflict that far too often culminates in its most tragic iteration when hundreds of innocent people are arrested, beaten, and killed for no crime other than their blackness. Straight Outta Compton is a story about our country on the brink, a story about our horrifying here-and-now, as essential to understanding where we are and how we got here as The Big Short, as brutally blunt as Beasts of No Nation. These conflicts continue to pulse through our culture every day and yet are often ignored by the establishment that decides what defines the portrait of our lives being portrayed by the year in film.
Straight Outta Compton is one of the most successful films of the year, with a box office take of $161 million on a scant budget of $28 mil; it’s tp. David Edelstein of New York Magazine wrote about this film in his review:
The story of pioneering L.A. gangsta rappers N.W.A. (as dictated and co-produced by the now-bazillionaire N.W.A.’ers themselves), Straight Outta Compton is among the most potent rags-to-riches showbiz movies ever made. It’s not the music itself that puts the film over, although hard-core bangers like “Fuck tha Police” still trigger both your exultation and fight-or-flight response. It’s the density of detail — along with jagged, hand-held camerawork that evokes a war zone — that renders the trauma universal. It’s how the movie makes you see the world through the eyes of Andre Young (a.k.a. Dr. Dre), O’Shea Jackson (a.k.a. Ice Cube), and Eazy-E (Eric Wright); and so the meaning, the urgency, at times the necessity of even the most obscene, vainglorious, and incendiary rhymes emerge with thrilling clarity.
I know, millions of people didn’t need a biopic to understand that urgency — or need, for that matter, my white-mansplainin’ of the roots of gangsta rap. But Straight Outta Compton aims to cross cultures and sanctify the wisdom of the street — to make a universal underdog story. It succeeds on a visceral level. Directed by F. Gary Gray from a shapely, often subtle script by Jonathan Herman and Andrea Berloff, the film depicts a world that’s a series of confrontations, one swiftly following the next. The cops manhandle and go nose-to-nose with young black men, their attacks a test of manhood to be met with casual defiance, with heads held high. But damage is also done by other black men, who put their own pride on the line in dances of dominance and submission.
Please tell me this isn’t going to be another year when Oscar voters once again declare white history as the only history worth rewarding. For all of the diversity in films like The Martian, Beasts of No Nation, The Force Awakens, Creed and The Big Short — we could still risk ending up with yet another shameful season where most of the films honored feature mostly white casts. How can we say “black lives matter” and then turn around and repeatedly prove that they really don’t?
For a major studio to have released Straight Outta Compton, and given it the wide reach it needed to earn $161 million is a huge statement. It’s a success story that no self-respecting industry can ignore if they honestly intend to honor the highest achievements of the year. It’s an opportunity that shouldn’t be denied, to give credit where credit is due. The vivid images of South Central Los Angeles, the great performances — by O’Shae Jackson as Ice Cube and Jason Mitchell as Eazy E in particular — and the film’s beating heart: those great great songs. To honor this film will celebrate the hip hop legacy, pay tribute to one of the most fascinating cultural shifts of our time, and acknowledge how its throbbing pulse continues to resonate today.
I have issues with hip hop and its promotion of excess and misogyny, but hip hop and the culture has helped spread the message of the plight of poc to the world.
Compton is a great film. It manages to be entertaining and give NWA credit for their contributions to society at large. The acting is top notch as well as the directing.
“white culture didn’t really find out about this sickness until the Rodney King beating in 1991 and the subsequent uprising a year later when the cops walked away scot-free.”
White culture has known about it since America has existed as a nation. They largely choose to ignore it until poc shut down a major city and cost the government millions of dollars. It’s eerily similar to our present (Gardner and New York City etcetera).
Wasn’t keen on the film but hope to fuck it gets a boatload of Oscar nominations. Cos what does my opinion have to do with shit anyway? More diversity at any cost kthxbye
Another thing is how good Paul Giammati is. the black actors deserve the most credit, and its a black film and they are rightly at the fore front of the nomination talk in this film. but man, lets not forget just how great giammati is in this. one of the best actors alive and a national teasure.
hey, JR.
Here:
It’s Time to Start Taking Brooklyn Seriously as a Potential Best Picture Winner
https://www.awardsdaily.com/2015/11/08/its-time-to-start-taking-brooklyn-seriously-as-a-potential-best-picture-winner/
Nick Hornby talks about his screenplay for Brooklyn
https://www.awardsdaily.com/2015/11/13/nick-hornby-talks-about-his-screenplay-for-brooklyn/
Interview: Jake Roberts on Editing Brooklyn
https://www.awardsdaily.com/2015/12/04/interview-jake-roberts-on-editing-brooklyn/
Raves for the Moving, Essential Brooklyn
https://www.awardsdaily.com/2015/11/04/raves-for-the-moving-essential-brooklyn/
Do you think those 4 Awards Daily posts about Brooklyn can satisfy your boner for Brooklyn until the next time we post something else about Brooklyn?
Meanwhile, THIS post is about Straight Outta Compton.
If it bothers you so much that this post is about a movie about black people then you have about 350 other movies this year All About White People that you can go cuddle with, alright?
But wait! There’s more!
Jordan Ruimy talks to Saoirse Ronan about Brooklyn
https://www.awardsdaily.com/2015/10/10/jordan-ruimy-talks-to-saoirse-ronan-about-brooklyn/
Brooklyn Plays like Gangbusters at New York Film Festival
https://www.awardsdaily.com/2015/10/08/brooklyn-plays-like-gangbusters-at-new-york-film-festival/
Where’s your sillyass evidence about an “agenda” now?
Go talk about Brooklyn in one of these 6 major posts that we’ve published about Brooklyn.
And please stop hijacking the conversation here with YOUR agenda.
Lol pwnt! Thank you ryan! I was gonna go on a little rant myself but you beat me too it! *sits back and sips wine*
I love Brooklyn! Great performances all around. The film truly made me forget my own world, and totally captivated me with its own characters. Saoirse Ronan and Emory Cohen are adorable and extremely touching. Definitely one of 2015’s best films!
I’m not sure what’s so special about the Oscars or the Golden Globes. SOC has been nominated for an NAACP Image Award. I think that would be more prestigious as their community is saying well done. Never heard of Brooklyn.
This is great. STRAIGHT OUTTA COMPTON hasn’t left my top 5 all these months later. Did you just see it now or was it a change of heart/new information?
Sasha wrote this thoughtful piece about a great film that, for some reason, was never given the Awards buzz it deserved…and half the comments are about Brooklyn. k.
At least Brooklyn is guaranteed one nomination. SOC could very well be snubbed across the board. Again, I don’t see how the 2 films are related anyway.
East Coast/West Coast?
yep, that is annoying.
The sexism flap wasn’t just over one person’s bad behavior. In many ways, NWA mainstreamed misogyny in hip-hop. Prior to them, which artists were calling women bitches and hos every time they referred to women? Run DMC? No. Afrika Bambataa? Kurtis Blow? LL Cool J? No. It wasn’t unknown (if you read something like “She Watch Channel Zero” carefully) but it wasn’t endemic, either. Maybe the Beastie Boys were bad (especially “Girls”) but I don’t know that they ever had the influence of NWA, certainly not over black music.
The movie absolutely whitewashes the band’s consistent misogyny, or perhaps I should say manwashes it. Often the offensive lyrics are deleted when the rest of the song is played, as with “8 Ball” we don’t hear Eazy sing “called her a bitch cause that’s the rule.” And of course they have to entirely jettison a song like this from the album Straight Outta Compton:
“I Ain’t tha 1”
[Ice Cube, do you think you could give me some money to get
my hair done?] How short’s your hair right now?
[Well you know I get it done every week, and I need my nails
done too] Look, I’ma tell you like this
I ain’t the one, the one to get played like a pooh butt
See I’m from the street, so I know what’s up
On these silly games that’s played by the women
I’m only happy when I’m goin’ up in ’em
But you know, I’m a menace to society
But girls in biker shorts are so fly to me
So I step to em, with aggression
Listen to the kid, and learn a lesson today
See they think we narrow minded
Cause they got a cute face, and big-behinded
So I walk over and say “How ya doin?”
See I’m only down for screwin, but you know
Ya gotta play it off cool
Cause if they catch you slippin’, you’ll get schooled
And they’ll get you for your money, son
Next thing you know you’re gettin’ their hair and they nails done
Fool, and they’ll let you show em off
But when it comes to sex, they got a bad cough
Or a headache, it’s all give and no take
Run out of money, and watch your heart break
They’ll drop you like a bad habit
Cause a brother with money yo, they gotta have it
Messin’ with me though, they gets none
You can’t juice Ice Cube girl, cause I ain’t the one
[Girl, you got to get these brothers for all the money
you can honey. Cause if they ain’t got no money, they can’t
do nothin for me but get out of my face]
[I know what you mean girl, it ain’t nothin’ right jumpin’ off
unless he got dollars]
Sometimes I used to wonder
How the hell an ugly dude get a fine girl’s number
He’s gettin’ juiced for his ducats
I tell a girl in a minute yo, I drive a bucket
And won’t think nuttin’ of it
She can ride or walk, either leave it or love it
I show her that I’m not the O, the N-E, say
I’m a ruthless N-I double-G A
Cause I’m gamin on a female that’s gamin on me
You know I spell girl with a be
A brother like me is only out for one thing
I think with my ding-a-ling, but I won’t bring no
Flowers to your doorstep, when we goin’ out
Cause you’ll take it for granted, no doubt
And after the date, I’ma want to do the wild thing
You want lobster huh? I’m thinking Burger King
And when I take you, you get frustrated
You can’t juice Ice Cube and you hate it
But you see, I don’t go nuts
Over girls like you with the BIG ol butts
It start comin’ out the pocket, to knock it
But when the damage is done
You can only lay me girl, you can’t play me girl
For the simple fact that, I ain’t the one
[I don’t care how they look if they got money
we can hook up but they ain’t gettin none.]
[Yeah I just make em think they gonna get some
play up they mind a lil bit, and get that money.]
[Oh Ice Cube, can I have some money please?]
Give you money why bother
Cause you know I’m lookin’ nothin’ like your father
Girl, I can’t be played or ganked
Ganked means getting took for your bank
Or your gold or your money or something
Nine times outta ten, she’s giving up nothing
They get mad when I put it in perspective
But let’s see if my knowledge is effective
To the brothas man they robbing you blind
Cause they fine with a big behind, but pay it no mind
Keep your money to yourself homie
And if you got enough game
You’ll get her name and her number
Without going under
You can’t leave em and love and stay above em
I used to get no play now she stay behind me
Cause I said I had a Benz 190
But I lied and played the one
Just to get some now she feels dumb
To my homies it’s funny
But that’s what you get trying to play me for my money
Now don’t you feel used
But I don’t give hoot, huh, because I knock boots
You shouldn’t be, so damn material
And try to milk Ice Cube like cereal
Now how many times do I have to say it
Cause if I have to go get a gun
You girls will learn I don’t burn
You think I’m a sucka, but I ain’t the one
[But you said you love me!]
I don’t see no rings on this finger
[Why you doin’ me like this? I love you!]
Yeah you love my money, I got what I wanted, beat it
So…let’s just be clear what was elided. Having said all that, I actually agree with most of Sasha’s post. The movie was great, what it’s celebrating was great. (Say it with me and David Edelstein: GANGSTA RAP. NWA invented it, even as they also transformed hip-hop.) I would like it if it was a BP nominee. I hope Universal keeps up the campaigning. But I couldn’t let the first two paragraphs of this post stand.
There must be a bunch of old dudes in the Academy who are on their fifth wife who will love those lyrics.
Lol incredibly loose connection but this reminded me of a guy I caddy for now and again at my golf club. He’s old, white and sounds like a whiney Eeyore, love him though, very nice. He listens to 50 Cent all the time and once went to a concert of his. Bouncers stopped him from going in asking him if he’s at the right place. Also goes by the nickname Tennessee, just gets better and better.
Er, i dont think anyone is under the illusion that NWA were not misogynistic. Plus the film contained the first verse of Dopeman, and Eazys 3rd verse of Straight Outta Compton. The Misogyny is displayed in those songs. Now if you are saying you want every misogynistic thing they did to be in the movie thats another thing.
unlikelyhood
gee, Thanks a lot for writing over 1000 words finding fault in a movie that decides to AVOID shoving the thing you hate down our throats.
And meanwhile there’s a post from 2 days ago with nearly 300 comments literally arguing for and against the abuse of women in a crude movie that WALLOWS and RELISHES in the very thing you profess to hate — but did you drop by that post with a 1000 word essay to undermine THAT movie? No you did not.
I will agree: There’s a movie of some sort that could examine the escalation of roughly-worded lyrics after the advent of NWA. A thoughtful documentary would be and excellent way to discuss it, and I’d watch that documentary.
But how in the hell exactly do you want a narrative film (a film that’s already 150 minutes long) to address this escalation in dramatic terms? Do you actually WANT to hear these offensive words repeated in theaters all across America so that you can BE SURE that everybody hears them? (I have to assume that maybe you do, since you have helpfully cut-and-pasted dozens and dozens of lines here in order rub everyone’s noses in all the stuff you think is Bad Bad Bad.)
===
Do you honestly want to hear these ugly lyrics in the movie?… and then what? The camera cuts to the faces of women in the audience with pissed-off looks on their faces? Or cut to the faces of academics like yourself attending the NWA concert and frowning a big frown? How fascinating that would be.
Tell me: How are you going to make this part of the story narratively interesting? Maybe just interrupt the movie and have a professor step up to face the camera and explain to us in the middle of the movie that these guys wrote some very rude things?
No. What a movie does is show things in visual terms to convey things that are awkward or downright impossible to “discuss” in the middle of a narrative film.
In Straight Outta Compton, did you not notice all the parties populated with girls? naked girls, girls in bikinis, girls in the process of giving blowjobs in bathrooms? You saw all that, right? Those girls were not music industry legal secretaries. They were girls (or hell, I’d better say women) who were hanging around to be used for sex. Lots of them probably hos. (or “whores,” to be polite).
THAT’s how you get the message of maltreated women across in a movie like this. You show the maltreatment happening. You don’t make us listen to a song about it.
Let me ask you. Was the word “bitch” never spoken in Straight Outta Compton? I’ll answer that. I have the script and I searched it and I found the word ‘bitch’ spoken 14 times. ‘Fuck’ was spoken 290 times. I’ve seen the movie 4 times and never did I ever get the impression that any effort was being made to sanitize the way these guys spoke.
===
Sorry you didn’t get to hear the song that you wanted to hear in order that all the millions of women who bought a ticket to Straight Outta Compton could sit there and listen to it and grimace along with you.
But this movie WAS NOT ABOUT analyzing the social impact of hearing the word ‘ho’ on the radio. It was 150 minutes long already. How many scenes did you want where millions of moviegoers have to listen to thing that you wish didn’t exist but you still want us to read, — and again — how would those scenes get their message across? a few dozen scenes of women all across America with hurt-feelings expressions on their faces?
(And tell me, what IS the devastating social impact of hearing the word ‘ho’? Is it worse than the social impact of seeing a sociopath like Chris Kyle portrayed as a role model because he invaded another country for no reason whatsoever and then he murdered more Iraqi women and children than any other American? Tell me, Where were you with your 1000 word essays then? You didn’t feel compelled to speak up and refuse to let “those 2 paragraphs stand ” when we had dozens of neo-con weirdos on the site last year defending Chris Kyle?)
===
This is exactly what Sasha meant when she said : [paraphrasing:] “literally hundreds of movies portray White Men “heroes”
— white men who literally MURDER brown children and commit continental genocide throughout American film history ” —
— as recently as LAST YEAR a movie like that earned $545 million. And THOSE movies go the Oscars all the time. THOSE directors get praised. THOSE vulgar directors win golden trophies for writing movies where women aren’t just referred to with rude words — THOSE vulgar directors win Oscars for writing movies where women are SHOWN being raped and brutally beaten and spat upon and getting their brains graphically blown out. But THOSE directors have names like Eastwood and Tarantino. So where’s the twitter fit-throwing about THOSE guys? (aside from my own tweets)
Come around and get mad about those white guys and their disgusting white guy behavior once in a while, would you please?
Thanks. I’d appreciate it.
I agree there was no way for the film to really do it, unless it spotlighted their homophobia the way it did in the extended listen to “No Vaseline.” That’s why I said I agreed with most of Sasha’s post, and that I would like the film to get a BP nom.
Uh, I don’t know that I wrote 1000 words. I mostly cut and pasted lyrics.
If I agree with you or Sasha, then I can let the paragraphs stand, or offer a “huzzah,” which I sometimes do. Other times, others will raise objections and I can be satisfied that the point has been made. In this case, it hadn’t.
Was there a post about H8F8? I’ve been w family for Xmas, I missed the post and the movie, and thus wouldn’t feel qualified to have said.
I don’t think I have some kind of record of looking the other way at movies that glorify killers or rapists, no matter the director. I wrote the AD piece making the case for 12 Years a Slave, didn’t I? I think you and I are pretty much always on the same liberal side aren’t we? Is American Sniper your only example? Like many many other writers, in the New York Times and elsewhere, I did not see that film as a simplistic hagiography of Kyle any more than WoWS was a simplistic hagiography of Jordan Belfort. I call this a revived French Connection subgenre: lead does something with messianic fervor for 2 hours, then we are made to ask: what the fuck has he done? What was he thinking? Spotlight was this, a little.
I don’t know that I didn’t spar with the neocons here a year ago, but if not it’s because you and others handled them 🙂
We were on the same page on American Hustle, Argo, the Kings Speech. I’m struggling to think of when I’ve excused white male revisionism as you suggest, other than Sniper, and even in that case I mostly just listened as others made their cases.
There ARE many studies about misogyny in rap, if not documentaries. NWA was to misogyny what Elvis was to hip-swinging, what the Beatles were to rock bands writing their own songs. They weren’t first, but they changed everything. If Sasha had ignored the issue entirely, that would have been one thing, but I had to correct her over sweetened version of the story.
I’m glad you didn’t type all that out. I’m even more glad that you don’t have those stanzas memorized the way I can recite the first 1000 words of The Raven.
I’m just looking at the amount of real estate your comment occupies on the page. And I’m also thinking, like I already said: if your point is to make thousands of people get offended who previously did not know what to get offended about, then Mission Accomplished. But it seems a harsh and lengthy way to make a point.
Yes, there’s a hateful8 post, and ok, I should not have assumed that you have seen the movie or the post. jJust that it’s been the most active post on the site all week and I’m surprised that this one thing here caught your attention and not the other thing.
If you want to talk about misogyny we have a post with “Misogyny” right there in the headline about 8 posts prior to this one.
Of course American Sniper is not my only example. It’s just that Chris Kyle is my favorite whipping boy. There are 1000s of examples, but my comment had already gone off the rails with my wild-eyed aggravation, so I decided to stop after one revolting example.
It’s your continued insistence that “Sasha over-sweetened the story” that continues to aggravate me.
I am on the twitter machine way too much, and I swear on several holy texts, the only thing I ever saw twitter complaining about is the fact that the movie neglected to mention the way Dr Dre has a sad history of domestic abuse.
I never once saw anyone online saying: “But why doesn’t Straight Outta Compton” want to talk about the fact that the lyrics of hip hop are disrespectful to women.?”
I swear, your bringing that up about the lyrics is the very first time I’ve heard this criticism leveled against the movie.
And it’s just like Sasha says: funny how every time a movie comes out like, for example, hateful8, nobody says: “GUNS! another movie with GUNS! don’t you people understand that GUNS kill 30,000 innocent Americans every year!?”
— go count how many movies this year have GUNS in them and then go find me all the people on twitter who say, “Well, those movies failed to mention that GUNS ARE BAD, so therefore those movies Are Whitewashing GUNS. Stop over-sweetening the story when you say you like The Departed. The Departed fails to point out that we need stricter gun control laws.”
Movies cannot be about EVERYTHING. Screenwriters and directors decide what parts of which stories they want to cover in the span of 120 minutes.
I get really bored with criticisms of movies that say “well, they left this part out.” — yes, they left part of real life out of the movie. That way the movie doesn’t have to be 3000 hours long.
Okay, so nobody on your twitter feed tweeted this from the Washington Post:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/posteverything/wp/2015/08/21/white-critics-and-rap-fans-love-straight-outta-compton-but-theyre-missing-half-the-story/
or this from the Detroit Free Press:
http://www.freep.com/story/opinion/contributors/2015/08/21/nwa-women/32163613/
or this from Hitfix (where I think you click once or twice a year) which also references the Huffington Post and Gawker among others:
http://www.hitfix.com/news/outrage-watch-is-straight-outta-compton-ignoring-nwas-misogynist-history
Now…all that said, I’m kind of with you on “well they left this part out” criticisms. Perhaps I should say I’m of two minds. Part of me feels that yes, you can’t get everything into a 150 minute movie, and another part of me thinks – as you do with Chris Kyle – that some transgressions are so severe as to require a little more explication.
Cautiously, I lean the first way on Straight Outta Compton. That’s why for me, there’s a difference between confronting the film and confronting the post. I’m with you: the film shouldn’t change. Certainly, the bikini-clad women, the hotel room, the woman kicked and locked out of the hotel room…they made it clear enough for me, though they didn’t for the five paid mainstream press writers I linked to above.
But when Sasha does her 2015 remix of Eminem’s “Forgot About Dre,” I have to say SHE’S not telling the whole story of the film’s revisions. It elided more than that.
Of course, I really wish disenfranchised groups weren’t so often brought into a zero-sum game, where for one to win the other has to lose. “You’re likable enough Hillary” kind of thing. Prop 8 in 2008 kind of thing. All fighting for scraps at the white hetero man’s table, and so they have to turn on each other. I get that that’s bullshit.
Now, I am REALLY looking forward to reading the post and all the comments on QT’s newest. Unfortunately I guess that means I have to actually pony up and see it. Some of us unfrozen caveman lawyers don’t get screeners, you know?
You know what. Sometimes it’s a good idea to go back to the beginning to remember what the hell we’re arguing about. Read Sasha’s first paragraphs again, the 2 lines that got under your skin:
Are either of those sentences False? No.
Do either of those sentences say (as you keep trying to insist) that the behavior Dr Dre or any other individual is the ONLY issue that anyone could possibly have with the movie? No.
All Sasha ever says is this: There were people who wanted Straight Outta Compton to indict Dr Dre on some of his well-known faults that many people find troubling.
But the movie chose to tell another story.
The movie didn’t “elide” anything. It simply chose to tell the story of the way hip hop helped give rise to empowerment to a nation of young people who had been beaten down too hard and too long, and the way hip hop not only revolutionized the music industry, it helped energize the past two generations of black kids so that we are finally beginning to listen to their concerns.
That’s what the filmmakers wanted to do, that’s what they wanted say.
It sucks for you that you and other other people want the movie to say a bunch of other stuff but I think you’re gonna just have to get over it. This movie not the droid you’re looking for.
Maybe Clint Eastwood can make a movie about Dr Dre slapping women and he’ll spotlight how hip hop has contributed to a culture of disrespect for women. You should pitch that premise to Clint.
But unlikelyhood, thank you for indulging me in this debate. It’s never a waste of time to spar with you. You always come equipped with strong feelings and hard facts.
But I do think you need to quit it when you say that Sasha tries to make it sound like Dr Dre’s anger-management issues are the only thing missing from Straight Outta Compton.
Because Sasha never says that.
She simply states the truth: Lots of people were mad that the movie left Dre’s bad behavior out. But the movie has a message that rises above all that. True, True. True. Nothing but truth in those two paragraphs that bug you.
That’s all true. So please lay off the way this post chooses to praise the movie.
You want a post that gets into analyzing the insidious misogyny of hip hop lyrics.
This post praising all the great things about Straight Outta Comption is not the fucking droid you’re looking for.
Seems like you and Sasha missed a whole paradigm of criticism that went beyond Dre’s one thing with Dee Barnes. All I’m doing is bringing that issue to your attention, really.
The rest, fine. Though I think you have your own “they left stuff out” perspective on American Sniper. And if you have any other examples of me tacitly supporting real-life Chris Kyles, PLEASE let me know, cause I think that’s crap. I was here posting, yelling at the “Ava Duvernay left out the truth about LBJ” crowd at this time last year.
“Get on Up” didn’t soft-pedal James Brown’s abuse of women, and maybe that’s why it never made it to the Oscar conversation, I don’t know.
For some reason I’m reminded of a student of mine who, when I called Bill Cosby a sexual predator about a month ago, forcefully disagreed. She called all of his accusers gold-diggers. Some student said, “but the statute of limitations…” She said you don’t know that, and besides these women getting TV appearances helps what’s left of their acting careers. She said that black men always get these accusations and it’s almost always false.
Let me tell you, the room of 30 students went dead silent, like a graveyard.
Maybe it’s time I follow their lead.
yes, probably best to cease if you’ve decided that your new nice way to “bring things to our attention” is to compare me and Sasha to a clueless apologist for Bill Cosby.
Having said that, i dont think it would be a travesty if Straight Outta Compton didnt get nominated. I mean, it would be nice, but so many deserving films this year, of which Compton is just one.
Thank You for this Sasha. Just a correction, its Jason Mitchell that plays Eazy E. I loved this film as much as I loved Wolf Of Wallstreet a few years back. No doubt ther are better films from a Film Artistic point of view in the race, but in terms of just having a good time watching it, this was my favorite film.
othermike1. thanks. my fault. I mangled that. fixed now. thank you!
Strange. A lot of people have S.O.C. in their Oscar predictions but not Brooklyn. Which is a HUGE shock for me. A beautifully acted, crafted film with subtle yet beautiful direction. It’s beautiful alright, if I didn’t mention it already. An utter shock to me but I’m sure now that it won’t get nominated for Best Picture or Best Adapted Screenplay; one of the most beautiful scripts I’ve read. Nick Hornby writes so subtly, so truthfully. Such a shame.
I think a lot of people me included think SOC will be nominated just to combat the OscarsSoWhite from last year. As Creed does not have any momentum right now ( it might later) I think people are saying this will be the one nominated. This or Beasts of No Nation. I personally enjoyed the film but having a film with only POC has helped its chances a lot probably. Also there is no widespread support for Brooklyn except for Sairose.
Yeah. Creed is better though. In all areas.
Oh well, Saoirse Ronan is by far the best working, young actress today. Her performance is so subtle. Once again, it proves that although “subtle” performances DO get nominated they rarely win. IMO Saoirse > Brie. But then again Charlotte Rampling > Saoirse > Brie…
I have not seen 45 years. Same for me. Liked Brooklyn more than Room and Sairose more than Brie.
There’s support for ”Brooklyn” within AMPAS!!!
Well hopefully.
so you do not think it is good enough to get nominated?
well here is what i think. from a filmmaking point of view, is at good as Mad Max? Bridge Of Spies? Carol? nope. those films are made by true auteurs. I love F Gary Gray, he has mde 3 films that would be considered black culture popcorn classics, Friday, Set It Off and now Straight Outta Compton. I happen to think he is an underrated Studio Director For Hire. these guys do not normally get the critical acclaim of TRUE Artists, but they get the job done. His CV is full of Studio Fare where he gets the job done.
Now does he deserve to be ahead of people like Todd Haynes, George Miller, Spielberg? Nah. But some of these Oscar stalwarts like Tom Hooper and the like, and these british Oscar bait movies? I’d take F Gary Grays entertaining Studio Fare over those Oscar Films anyday.
PS, Manohla has been a fan of F Garys over the years, and has championed his work, and she is as good and tough a critc as we have, so that alone should give us faith in his work, plus Straight Outta Compton made her best films of the year list.
As i definitely liked the movie a lot and would be very happy if it got nominated. I literally mentioned i liked the movie. It is not before say Martian, Inside Out, Mad Max and all which are better films but if it still gets nominated its alright. Considering Room will get nominated, everything can after that.
Pessimism at its best. I see ”Brooklyn” being nominated for BAS, PD & BP as well as BA. ”Pundits” immediately think its out of the race because it didn’t make AFI (ineligible) or BP GG. At the end of the day it has the support and the BO takings that will certainly help its chances.
Ineligible? Really? I didn’t know this.
phoenix12e
Brooklyn was produced by British entities and financed primarily with money from the UK. It was developed by the Irish Film Board. AFI honors films with more of an American pedigree.
Oh. That’s very strange. Isn’t it the same with Room? Irish- something. Or are they excepting it because of the American lead?
”Room” had some US financing.
Similar, but I believe the significant difference is this: Room was picked up for distribution (and financing) before it was even shot — by A24, an American company headquartered in Los Angeles.
It’s very much to do with “follow the money.”
No surprise it was snubbed at the Golden Globes and most likely will be snubbed at Oscars. But who cares? Those tight asses sitting behind a desk drinking their lattes and kibitzing around with the who’s who in Hollywood don’t have a clue or a finger on the pulse of a really good movie.