Read Ava Duvernay S Glowing Review Of Straight Outta Compton

Read Ava DuVernay’s Glowing Review Of ‘Straight Outta Compton’

By Angie Han/Aug. 21, 2015 8:30 am EST

F. Gary Gray’s Straight Outta Compton has been getting great reviews from just about everyone, and now you can add Ava DuVernay to its growing list of admirers. The Selma director is uniquely qualified to critique the film. Not only is she an accomplished filmmaker in her own right, and a tireless advocate of diversity in Hollywood, DuVernay actually grew up in Compton as the events depicted in Straight Outta Compton were unfolding. Read the Ava DuVernay Straight Outta Compton review after the jump.

DuVernay spilled her Straight Outta Compton thoughts on Twitter in a series of 18 tweets. She compares Gray’s film to her own lived experiences, touches upon hip-hop’s treatment of women, and showers praise on all the artists involved including Gray, cinematographer Matthew Libatique, and the talented young cast. In all, her reaction to the picture is nearly as moving, insightful, and personal as the picture itself.

I saw @ComptonMovie last night w/ friends at the Baldwin Hills Crenshaw Plaza in South Central with a beautiful, alive, invested audience. — Ava DuVernay (@ava) August 16, 2015

Invested because many of them, like me, were there. Teens at the very time and in the very place depicted on screen. It had better be right. — Ava DuVernay (@ava) August 16, 2015

And damn, they got it right. Under @FGaryGray’s brilliant direction + @MattyLibatique’s gorgeous cinematography, I was transported back. — Ava DuVernay (@ava) August 16, 2015

I saw the militarized Batterrams again. Rolling up our streets like invaders in a war. My friend asked, “Is that real?” Yep. That happened. — Ava DuVernay (@ava) August 16, 2015

I saw the cavalier way that women were treated in hip hop spaces early on. Window dressing at most. Disposable at worst. Yep, that happened. — Ava DuVernay (@ava) August 16, 2015

I was in the street during the Rodney King Uprising. After that unjust verdict. Feeling anger. And community. And fire. And love. Happened. — Ava DuVernay (@ava) August 16, 2015

I remember the truce. So when that shot of red and blue bandanas tied together flashed on screen? Wild applause in my theater. It happened. — Ava DuVernay (@ava) August 16, 2015

The music of my youth and how it came to be and why it was what it was. We rapped along, clapped, laughed, cried. For all that has happened. — Ava DuVernay (@ava) August 16, 2015

All the stifling of our voices as young black people in that place at that time while a war was going on against us. @FGaryGray captured it. — Ava DuVernay (@ava) August 16, 2015

He captured the plight of the black artist in general, once consumed by systems and structures not made for them. The struggle is real. — Ava DuVernay (@ava) August 16, 2015

To be a woman who loves hip hop at times is to be in love with your abuser. Because the music was and is that. And yet the culture is ours. — Ava DuVernay (@ava) August 16, 2015

From depictions of the origins of “Bye Felicia” to watching Cube bring his wife Kim to business meetings. That’s hip hop. A curious thing. — Ava DuVernay (@ava) August 16, 2015

But for all the terrific acting, solid production design, swoon-worthy cinematography and fab costumes + hair, one sequence brought a tear. — Ava DuVernay (@ava) August 16, 2015

I leaned forward in my seat and put my hands to my face and gasped. As did many around me. Someone shouted, “HELL YEAH!” This sequence… — Ava DuVernay (@ava) August 16, 2015

Sunday on the ‘Shaw. I can’t tell you what it was, what it felt like. You had to be there. @FGaryGray gets you as close as you’ll ever get. — Ava DuVernay (@ava) August 16, 2015

Hundreds of black young people cruisin’ down Crenshaw. The raw energy. The cars. The brothers and sisters. The majesty of it all. A tear. — Ava DuVernay (@ava) August 16, 2015

It was maybe a one-minute sequence in the film but it all came rushing back. This film did that for me on multiple levels. It’s fantastic. — Ava DuVernay (@ava) August 16, 2015

Congratulations to @FGaryGray and all involved. Another classic now under his belt. Your craft and care is on full display. Bravo, brother. — Ava DuVernay (@ava) August 16, 2015

DuVernay also offered her thoughts on the media’s apparent shock that screenings of Straight Outta Compton did not immediately devolve into violence and mayhem.

You don’t say. blank stare pic.twitter.com/5Q53mKXB2N — Ava DuVernay (@ava) August 18, 2015

For even more from DuVernay on Straight Outta Compton, check out her AFFRM podcast interview with Gray. Straight Outta Compton is in theaters now. Jason Mitchell, Corey Hawkins, O’Shea Jackson Jr., Aldis Hodge, Neil Brown Jr., and Paul Giamatti star as N.W.A. members Eazy-E, Dr. Dre, Ice Cube, MC Ren, DJ Yella, and manager Jerry Heller, respectively. In the mid-1980s, the streets of Compton, California, were some of the most dangerous in the country. When five young men translated their experiences growing up into brutally honest music that rebelled against abusive authority, they gave an explosive voice to a silenced generation. Following the meteoric rise and fall of N.W.A., Straight Outta Compton tells the astonishing story of how these young men revolutionized music and pop culture forever the moment they told the world the truth about life in the hood and ignited a cultural war.