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| Courtesy of Universal |
Straight Outta Compton
(Rated
R for language throughout, strong sexuality/nudity, violence and drug use.)
The
cast: O’Shea Jackson Jr., Corey Hawkins, Jason Mitchell and Paul Giamatti.
What
it’s about: A biopic about revolutionary hip hop group N.W.A that depicts the
artists’ mid-1980s origin in one of America’s most dangerous neighborhoods.
Using their provocative lyrics and aggressive beats, the young men (including
future superstars Ice Cube and Dr. Dre) speak out against police brutality and
help ignite a social revolution that still has ramifications today.
The
good: Obviously, the music is fantastic if you’re a fan of hip hop. Since Ice
Cube, Dr. Dre and Tomica Woods-Wright (Eazy-E’s widow) are executive producers,
the film has access to N.W.A’s iconic catalogue, as well as classic songs from artists
they influenced, including Snoop Dogg and Tupac Shakur. The story follows the traditional
narrative blueprint of musical biopics like Walk the Line and Ray, so it’s
thrilling to watch the characters discover their sound or meet people that will
eventually play a prominent role in their lives.
The cast
is solid, with the charismatic Jackson (playing his own father), Hawkins and
Mitchell making the strongest impressions. Giamatti, as shady manager Jerry
Heller, comes across far more sympathetic than I expected. R. Marcos Taylor, as
the infamous and terrifying Suge Knight, and Keith Stanfield, in a quick cameo
as Snoop Dogg, make memorable use of limited screen time.
The
not-so-good: History is written by the winners, so Straight Outta Compton focuses primarily on the group’s most famous members – who just so happen to be
the driving force behind the movie. As a result, the more troubling elements of
N.W.A’s history – their rampant homophobia and misogyny, particularly Dr. Dre’s
well-known assault of music journalist Dee Barnes – are glanced over or ignored
completely to help mythologize our heroes.
The
movie’s 147-minute running time is about a half-hour too long. I get that
director F. Gary Gray and the producers want to make an epic, but the story repeatedly
hits the same beats when addressing them once would do.
Grade:
B
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| Courtesy of Bleecker Street |
Danny Collins
(Rated
R for language, drug use and some nudity. Available at Redbox and On Demand.)
The
cast: Al Pacino, Christopher Plummer, Annette Bening, Bobby Cannavale and
Jennifer Garner.
What
it’s about: An old, coasting singer (Pacino, playing a washed-up version of
Neil Diamond) thinks about the road not taken when his longtime friend and
manager (Plummer) finds an undelivered letter John Lennon wrote him in the
1970s. Where would he be today if he’d gotten that message? He sets out to
answer that question by canceling his “greatest hits” tour, holing up in a New
Jersey hotel to write new music, and attempting to reconnect with his estranged
family.
The good: Writer-director
Dan Fogelman continues to tell creative stories in interesting ways. And, as
with the vastly underrated Crazy, Stupid, Love., he gets a big boost from the
performers delivering his dialogue. Those actors are what makes this slight
comedic drama worth watching.
Perhaps the story
about a once-beloved artist who decides to stop coasting spoke to Pacino,
because this is his first genuinely great performance in years. Although
borderline pathetic at first, he allows viewers to see who Danny Collins used
to be – and that it might not be too late to be that man again.
His chemistry with Bening,
as the hotel manager who sees through Collins’ celebrity tricks, is dazzling.
His scenes with Cannavale (as the son he’s never met), Garner (his
daughter-in-law) and Giselle Eisenberg (the shockingly good young actress who
plays his granddaughter) are also warm, funny and emotionally affecting.
The not-so-good: The
jarring R-rated material often comes off as Fogelman trying to “rough up”
what’s actually a mild, warmhearted story. It’s not like the language, drug use
and single instance of gratuitous nudity made me faint or clutch my pearls.
Instead, it feels like a 12-year-old pretending he’s an expert on rock star
life. Worse, it doesn’t contribute anything of relevance to the overall
narrative.
Grade: B-
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| Courtesy of Netflix |
Wet Hot American Summer: First Day of Camp
(Rated
TV-MA. Available on Netflix.)
The
cast: Listing everyone would take up this entire article, but here are just a
few – Paul Rudd, Amy Poehler, Bradley Cooper, Elizabeth Banks, Janeane
Garofalo, Molly Shannon, Christopher Meloni, Jason Schwartzman, Josh Charles, Jon
Hamm, Michael Cera and Kristen Wiig.
What
it’s about: An eight-episode Netflix series that acts as a prequel to the 2001
cult classic that parodied ’80s summer camp comedies. Showcasing some terrific
absurdist humor, the show miraculously reunites the original cast (almost all
of whom went on to become A-listers) with even more famous faces and depicts how
some of the movie’s most memorable characters started their summer.
The good: Michael
Showalter and David Wain (co-creators, co-writers and co-stars) somehow
maintain the frequency and randomness of the original’s jokes, as well as its
surprising tonal shifts. This could’ve been a four-hour overdose of callbacks
and lazy nostalgia (remember Netflix’s disappointing fourth season of Arrested
Development?), but it actually manages to improve on the original film.
Granted, the cast had more
than a decade to hone their comedy chops, but I’d like to imagine it’s because
everyone knew how heartbreaking it would be to screw this up. On a related
note, one of the show’s best jokes is seeing actors who were a decade too old
to play teenagers in 2001 now playing even younger versions of those
characters. (It’s also a great benchmark to determine your level of interest in
the show. If you don’t think the idea of Rudd, Poehler, Cooper, etc. playing
16-year-old camp counselors is hilarious, First Day of Camp probably isn’t
for you.)
I love that spending
more time on these characters’ backstories and personalities lends even more
weight to the original film, which often plays like a series of
loosely-connected sketches. Banks, in particular, gets a character revamp that
makes you look at her role in an entirely new light.
The not-so-good:
Netflix may bill First Day of Camp as a television series, but it’s basically
a four-hour-long movie. As such, the jokes are hit and miss. Another downside
is that the actors’ schedules are far busier now than they were 15 years ago,
meaning not everyone gets to interact as much as I would’ve liked. Cooper, for
example, shot all of his scenes in a single day. He’s fantastic, but his
storyline is extremely limited as a result.
Again, this style of
humor is extremely subjective. For everyone who loves the original movie, there
are others who downright loathe it. If you’re curious, both the movie and the
series are available on Netflix (watch them in order, obviously), so you should
know pretty quickly if the raunchy, absurdist tone is up your alley.
Grade: B+
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