Jersey Boys Film Analysis

I may not have been alive to witness these events as they transpired, but I can say that I grew up on these artists. NWA, Eazy-E, and Ice Cube shaped my current musical tastes, my mother would play their albums in the car nonstop. My youth was littered with these guy’s music, in fact, the first time I ever cursed in front of my mother was to one of their songs, and it’s because of the impact their infamous music had on me growing up, that this film affected me so deeply.

Making a cohesive and narratively exceptional musical biopic is remarkably difficult, we saw that last year with ‘Jersey Boys’, a long-winded film with too little to say and too much runtime. This film, though vastly entertaining, is very similar to ‘Jersey Boys’ in that ailment.

One of my biggest qualms with ‘Jersey Boys’ is that you never knew who they were competing against, or what world events were happening in the background of the story. These real world events were, during that point in time, important in the development of these people, and thus should be essential in how you develop the characters in your film. This film gets that, you know who they’re competing against, you know what real-life events inspired their music, and you (kind of) know what was going on behind the scenes of this notorious rap

Ice Cube’s son O’Shea Jackson Jr. plays Ice Cube, and he does an extraordinary job portraying his father. I could go on all day about his spot on mannerisms and line delivery, but the entire performance can be summed up through the look in his eyes. O’Shea Jackson Jr. has this fire in his eyes that makes you believe he’s lived with less than those around him, and behind his bravado you can see that he’s carrying a thinly-veiled longing for importance that I didn’t really see in any of the other actor’s eyes. Corey Hawkins, who plays Dr. Dre, is phenomenal. This is more or less his story, and he carries this entire film on his shoulders, despite having very few films under his belt, this actor is going to be one to look out for in the coming years. The same can be said for the actor who plays Eazy-E, Jason Mitchell. This young man stole the entire film, though I think O’Shea Jackson Jr. gave the best performance of the film, I think Mitchell’s is my favorite. He expertly portrays Eazy-E with the signature gangster swagger, but he matches it with the kindness that you only hear about in interviews. Eazy-E was reportedly a very kind and caring person, despite what the media would have you believe, and you don’t really see that often from a rapper, and the way Mitchell perfectly captured the kindness without conflicting the tough