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0 of 3 Premium Clicks used this month SUBSCRIBE Print + Online Subscriber Activation | Register x Forgot Password | Need an Account? subscribe | newsletter | deals Classifieds Jobs Autos Real Estate FEATURED » NEWS NOW Wyden's support is vital ... Guest Opinion: City of Ashland space needs ... Haines & Friends Fund grants help local artists ... Wyden's support is vital ... Guest Opinion: City of Ashland space needs ... Haines & Friends Fund grants help local artists ... MOVIE REVIEW 'Compton' is attitude, money and music Comment By Chris Honoré for Revels DailyTidings.com By Chris Honoré for Revels Posted Aug. 20, 2015 at 12:01 AM By Chris Honoré for Revels Posted Aug. 20, 2015 at 12:01 AM » Social News Straight Outta Compton ; 147 min; Rated R   “Straight Outta Compton”is set in Los Angeles. The year is 1986. The film captures the meteoric rise of a group of young black men who form a group called N.W.A. (meaning N****** With Attitude). What they bring to the West Coast is what came to be known as “gangsta rap.” But this wasn’t just “rap,” as those outside the tent may think of it — some young black guy in a baseball cap, bedecked in heavy gold chains and rings, wearing $500 sneakers, bobbing and weaving, holding a microphone, talking trash, stalking back and forth on a stage. “Straight Outta Compton” is so much more than a caricature of a group of rappers. It attempts to probe beneath the surface and though it tells a familiar story — how quickly unrestrained fame can corrupt — it frames the narrative from a point of view that is unfamiliar to many in the audience. The POV of N.W.A. comes out of a deep well of unsettling black rage (which hasn’t abated), often directed at the L.A. police, who are portrayed in the film as being aggressively abusive, their actions predicated on the belief that all black men are “gangstas” and should be treated accordingly: “Down on the ground, hands behind you, and shut up N*****.” The anger of these young black men is ubiquitous and is full-throatedly expressed with in-your-face, uncensored language (“life ain’t nothing but money and bitches”), language that is wielded like a weapon. It’s a pounding, unfiltered riff that is defiant, hedonistic, nihilistic and misogynistic. The words are released like an angry dare, performed to a thudding, vibrating beat that is atavistic and jarring. “Compton” opens with Eazy-E (Jason Mitchell), then a low-level drug dealer entering a dark Compton bungalow that crackles with danger. Eazy is jacked up on attitude, though a couple of the dealers, both women, are holding shotguns and gats at their side as Eazy stands in the center of the living room holding a stash. As it turns out, he’s saved from likely getting shot by a home invasion conducted by the L.A. police, looking to do a drug bust. He makes a fast escape out a back window, chased by a snarling pit bull and runs across the rooftops of the ragged neighborhood. What actually saves Eazy from a future fraught with drug deals about to go south are two of his friends, Dr. Dre (Corey Hawkins), producer, and Ice Cube (O’Shea Jackson, Jr.), the writer. They form N.W.A. and, with an astonishing amount of confidence and talent, find an audience not just on the west coast but across the country — young, fist-pumping fans hungry to hear their brand of “boyz in the hood” rap. “Compton” possesses a patina of black cultural stereotypes, and may have cemented in the minds of many in middle-America the image of the angry black man. But in truth, theirs is a form of protest, of embracing the First Amendment and shouting out what they feel concerning their Compton reality. There is more to them than their corrosive, hard-edged, anarchic provocations that echo with their oft repeated refrain, “F*** da police.” Theirs isn’t just a struggle against the censorious establishment, but also a battle with one another as money and fame, which buys women and mansions, begin to rend what was a troika originally fashioned from friendship. This is a high-energy biopic worth seeing.           By Chris Honoré for Revels DailyTidings.com By Chris Honoré for Revels Posted Aug. 20, 2015 at 12:01 AM » Comment or view comments Reader Reaction » STAY INFORMED Email NewsLetter Sign Up Today Sign up for our newsletter and have the top headlines from your community delivered right to your inbox. Southern Oregon Directory Featured Businesses Loading... 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