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So you’d think that the source of the problems with “Straight Outta Compton” is its strict dedication to history, but it’s also clear (even without me knowing much about the real-life subjects) that the facts have been manipulated.

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Banks,” but generally, changing history to make a structurally strong movie is necessary. Sure, there are times when a movie does it way too much and is insulting to the actual events and people it’s trying to depict, like with “Saving Mr. This is the precise time that changing history for the sake of a movie is necessary, though. I think I have a theory for part of the reason why that happens so often: filmmakers feel like creating one central narrative is changing history too much, molding it into a simplistic linear plot format. But most of the other bland biopics that come out are just so long and so unfocused. “The Imitation Game” mostly did it with the fun thriller-type plot of trying to break the code, and even though that movie isn’t great and falls into a lot of different biopic stereotypes, it made the right call when it came to having a strong central plot.

“Selma” did it perfectly, focusing on a small slice of Martin Luther King Jr.’s life and building a compelling story out of it that never lagged. So many biopics fall into this trap of being too cluttered and unfocused, and at this point, I’m honestly just left wondering why it’s so hard. There are so many things that the movie tries to deal with, from the death of Dre’s brother to the death of Eazy-E to the conflict with manager Jerry Heller (a great Paul Giamatti, though he’s so likable that his supposed betrayal didn’t even bother me), that it all just feels like too much, especially because it almost totally sidelines DJ Yella and MC Ren, two of the founding members of NWA. More importantly, these cameos don’t add anything to the movie besides the slight novelty of seeing recognizable rap stars just starting out. Some of them are neat (I love Stanfield), and there’s always a little kind of thrill to seeing the origin of something great-like when Snoop Dogg and Dre sit down and make “Nuthin’ but a ‘G’ Thang.” Still, it’s pretty silly to pretend that that song was completely free-styled. There are countless cameos, like Keith Stanfield as Snoop Dogg and Marcc Rose as Tupac.

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I think it’s also partly because Eazy-E getting AIDS feels like just another superfluous subplot in a movie full of them. But even though I thought Eazy-E was interesting, even though Jason Mitchell was one of the standouts of the cast, I just wasn’t invested anymore. I heard people behind me afterwards talking about how they were crying watching Eazy-E dying from AIDS, so maybe the movie had its intended effect on some people. By the end, when ostensibly heartbreaking things are happening, I just wasn’t feeling sad because I’d generally lost interest in the movie at that point. It’s 147 minutes, but from the pace of the first half, it seems like it should only be 100, 120 at most. In general, it’s a good idea for a movie, and that idea makes it uncommonly interesting even when the movie lags.Īnd I think that’s the biggest problem: the movie lags a lot. It’s more enjoyable than many-funnier and more entertaining than the typical template of a genius white British man-and the subjects are more engaging and interesting than most biopic subjects. It’s frustrating to see biopics fall into the same traps over and over, but “Straight Outta Compton” falls into many of them.