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Critics Consensus: Roxanne Roxanne belatedly honors its subject with a gripping character-driven biopic that serves as a primer for a trailblazing career while telling an often tragic story.
Critic Consensus: Roxanne Roxanne belatedly honors its subject with a gripping character-driven biopic that serves as a primer for a trailblazing career while telling an often tragic story.
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All Critics (28) | Top Critics (10) | Fresh (21) | Rotten (7)
Larnell gathers a wide cast of vital actors for a bustling series of incidents that veer quickly from the sentimental to the shattering.
Adams is able to bring Shanté to life, but "Roxanne Roxanne" is so focused on personal details that the bigger picture is rendered blurry.
A film that breaks the musical biopic mold in ways that are sometimes frustrating and frequently exhilarating.
Don't worry: There will be rap battles and concert scenes and they do not disappoint. But they are the bass line beat. The drama of ordinary life is what makes this story stick in your head.
By shaping Roxanne Roxanne as a character profile, Larnell accentuates his actors' performances and crafts a nuanced community portrait ...
In attempting a gritty portrayal of Shanté's little-known private life, Roxanne Roxanne forgets her genius, as so many other people did back in the day.
Nia Long has her fiercest role in ages and gives her best performance in years in this gritty tale of love and hip hop.
I was devastated about what a waste of phenomenal talent this movie [is]... It was basic, and it was lazy writing.
Left as a footnote in music and hip hop history, when the film is at its best, it's a mold breaking biopic for its subject. At its worst, it's as unfocused as the teenage mind it inhabits.
Gets a difficult job done right: telling a Black woman's story on the screen. It tells that story with no frills, no gimmicks, no myths, and no pulled punches. It's real from jump.
Roxanne Roxanne places more onus on Shanté's path to notoriety rather than glamorizing how she transformed hip-hop-in sharp contrast to the conclusive glory of other rap biopics.
There is no nostalgia in Roxanne Roxanne, none of that warm halo that surrounds The Get Down. The best times for hiphop were very bad times for Shanté: her mother imploding into alcohol addiction, her moments of homelessness, her bruises.
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