A good movie

I wasn’t really sure what to expect from this flick, I don’t actually remember how it did end up my queue but, since it was available on Netflix, I thought I might as well check it out. I have to admit that I actually never heard of Roxanne Shanté before watching this movie. To be honest, as far as I’m concerned, I think it’s always difficult to feel involved in a biopic like this one when you have no connection whatsoever with the concerned artist. Still, I was positively surprised by the damned thing after all. Indeed, it was refreshing to see a Hip-Hop biopic which didn’t follow the usual arc of the artist being discovered, releasing their first album and then becoming huge in the process. Indeed, especially in this music genre, you have actually tons of artists who always remained underground but it doesn’t mean that they were not good, in the contrary, and it was really cool to see a movie focusing on such an artist. Chanté Adams was also really good and she really nailed it. However, even if she seemed so young in such a male dominated world, at 23 years old,  she was actually much older than Roxanne Shanté was at the time. Indeed, after watching this movie, I saw a vintage video-clip of Shanté singing her most famous song, ‘Roxanne’s Revenge’, and I was shocked by how young she looked. Seriously, she was just a little kid at the time. Another thing which was very well handled was her mother with a career-best performance by Nia Long. Indeed, she was unfortunately a drunk but it didn’t come out of nowhere, it was properly explained and I actually felt for her. Of course, the impact was even worse for Shanté and her sisters. It was also great to see this very young woman growing up, being careful with drugs and alcohol and even more with dudes. Seriously, she was so young, I was really scared for her. Eventually, it was rather heartbreaking to see her falling for a much older guy who eventually mishandled her so badly after all. It reminded me of a few women I have been dating recently and who expected me to give them such gifts right at the start of the relationship. Well, this movie definitely displayed that buying expensive gifts doesn’t make you a good man, that’s for sure. Anyway, to conclude, even if it was nothing really ground-breaking, it was a decent watch and I think it is worth a look.