In a way, I suppose a film like Roxanne Roxanne is meant for someone like me. Someone who has perhaps not heard of Roxanne Shanté, or in my case, only ever heard about her in passing, like a footnote in mid-80s hip hop history. To a degree, I’d say the first time writer/director, Michael Larnell does his job very well in getting me interested in learning more about the central character. However, to achieve this, the film takes the approach of having the story of her rise to fame told in very broad strokes. Think of it like someone reenacting a Wikipedia page as you’re reading it. The story beats are all there, but nothing is connecting them all in a way that builds to a central thesis.
We see Roxanne (played by Chanté Adams) as she deals with the daily struggles of life in the Queensbridge Projects, but we get to see her excited when she takes part in rap battles. Those sequences are fun, engaging, and they guide the audience to understanding her. We also see the toll that life has taken on her mother, Peggy (Nia Long), who naturally has her concerns about Roxanne getting into rapping when she should be at school.
Nia Long is wonderful, but she is playing a rather stock character, and while there are hints of nuance, especially in a recurring motif about how she – and eventually Roxanne – find themselves disappointed by the men in their life, but as I mentioned before, it doesn’t build to anything particularly significant or meaningful, and once the ending comes in, something about it rings a bit hollow.
It’s really all thanks to Chanté Adams that the film remains somewhat captivating. This is her first major role, and she makes one hell of a star-making turn here. She’s got a solid screen presence, she has a fierce energy, but also a quiet intensity that she can switch between at will depending on whatever the scene requires. She can even hold her own against one of the greatest actors working today, Mahershala Ali, who plays Cross, a sketchy guy who Roxanne becomes romantically entangled with in the latter half of the film. If anything, I’m glad I got to see this movie because I now have a new actor to keep on my radar.
But as for the film itself, there isn’t much else to say about it. It’s not a bad film by any means, but in trying to make the film accessible to audiences who might not know about these people, the reliance on standard musician biopic tropes end up hurting it more than helping it in the long run. It lacks a distinctive perspective, it lacks any real theme, or the details necessary to bring these characters and this world alive. It’s still very watchable, and it’s nice to see a film that is not only about the early years of hip hop (a rarity), but one that is from a female point-of-view (even more rare). I think we could really use more stories like this. Roxanne Roxanne isn’t a very good movie, but there are moments when it just comes alive, and since it was released through Netflix, it makes me more comfortable saying that it’s worth giving a shot.