Roxanne Roxanne (2017)
- General info
- Available formats
- Synopsis:
The movie tells the story of Roxanne Shanté (née Lolita Shanté Gooden), the girl rapper from the Queensbridge projects who in 1984, at the age of 14, recorded (in one tossed-off take) “Roxanne’s Revenge”, an answer record to U.T.F.O.’s “Roxanne, Roxanne” that quickly became an epochal underground single. The original U.T.F.O. track dissed a girl named Roxanne for being cold and hard to get. But Roxanne Shanté’s answer track wasn’t just defiant - it was epic. It was relentless. With nothing but a drum track behind her, she went on and on and on, in the raggedly possessed voice of a feminist teenage street queen (Every time that he sees me, he says a rhyme, but, see, compared to me, it’s weak compared to mine), and within the hyper-masculine world of hip-hop, it was as if she was inventing a new way for a young woman to be. - Actors:
- Mahershala Ali, Nia Long, Cindy Cheung, Jermaine Crawford, Adam Horovitz, Meryl Jones Williams, Eden Duncan-Smith, Elvis Nolasco, Tonye Patano, Kevin Phillips, Sean Ringgold, Curtiss Cook, Mitchell Edwards, Jermel Howard, Chanté Adams, Heather Simms, Taliyah Whitaker, Miles J. Harvey, Dante E. Clark, Shenell Edmonds
- Directors:
- Michael Larnell
- Genres:
- Drama, Music & Musicals, Special Interest
- Awards:
2017 Sundance Film Festival Special Jury Award Breakthrough Performance
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Reviews (1) of Roxanne Roxanne
Fast and loose with the facts - Roxanne Roxanne review by AER
A disappointing, flat biopic of the ferocious rapper of the mid 80s, Roxanne Shante. A trailblazing force who must go down in history as one of the best ever battle rappers to bless the mic, Roxanne Shante aka Lolita Gooden deserved a better film. It's surprising because she is listed as the producer so why some of the details are out of alignment doesn't make sense. For instance, the style of battle rapping is 90s style for the most part, and some of the fashions are a mistake too (nobody was rocking a cameo cut in the mid 80s until about late 87 - 88). Also Marley Marl he long-term DJ and producer is shown to ditched her in 86!?? When he worked with her up until about 1990!? Her manager Fly Ty begs her to sign to Cold Chillin' because his label hooked up with Warner Bros, yet she put Have a Nice Day out on the label way before the hook up! It's peculiar and a bit of a chronological mess.
However, it was cool to see tracks like Roxanne's Revenge, Def Fresh Crew, and Runaway in the narrative. The acting was fine but somewhat too laid back for the material: Mahershala Ali in particular is too mellow and muted for his role as the villainous Cross. Nia Long gets the acting honours as Shante's mother, but it's slim pickings in the main, as this struggles but ultimately fails to breathe. A shame.