Roxanne Roxanne is a 2018 biopic about the life of a young female rapper who struggled to provide for her family while defending herself from the dangers of the streets.
You might not know the name Roxanne Shante as well as you should, a hip hop rapper who rose to fame in New York City in the mid 1980s as a teenage kid with huge talent. In many ways, it’s refreshing to see a film celebrate not only her contribution but also a lot of what life was like in this small but crucial corner of the industry, even if director Michael Larnell, who also wrote the screenplay can’t quite elevate the project to the heights it feels like it should aspire to, putting great effort into the hard life but never fully exploring what it means.
As a child, Lolita Gooden (played young by Taliyah Whitaker) is already winning rap battles on the street, her style and in-your-face attitude earning her respect and cash for her mom. Raised in Queens, now older (played by Chante Adams), her homelife is a wreck, her mom (Lia Long) struggling to raise a houseful of kids and making all the wrong choices with men, some who take advantage and strip her of the hope and few savings she has in getting out of the projects. Lolita, who soon adopts the name Roxanne, takes to the streets to do what she can, sometimes falling into petty crime but often returning to the rap battles where she finally gets noticed and lands a radio hit, finding success suddenly at her feet. Unfortunately she learns the business is corrupt and when she falls for a local drug pusher named Cross (Mahershala Ali), things only get worse.
Promoted with vigor by her best friend Ranita (Shenell Edmonds), Roxanne is already up against the system, being a young woman who threatens the male-dominated street corners, though regularly tears them apart with ferocious off-the-cuff rhymes. She’s a stunning talent who burns her way through the competition, and there’s a lot of interest generated in seeing her rise to the top, but of course, this is a story of the machine and as such, the film spends much more time on the hardships and family life than the music. That’s not all bad, where Roxaane takes a second seat to her mother in helping to raise her siblings while earning a harsh lip along the way. Everyone wants out of the trap.
Shante is a troubled girl, still habitually sucking her thumb and learning that there is no one she can trust, which seems to run in the family. She builds layers of rage and hurt that become the shields and weapons for her rapping, though Larnell is far more interested in the hardships than the music, often cutting her off the moment she begins to get started. Either way, Shante seems strong but is vulnerable and is an easy mark for those looking to use her. Dreams rarely come true.
These leaves Roxanne Roxanne oddly empty of Roxanne the artist, which is admittedly a coin flip in what you what to take away from it. Performances all around are terrific, and the film is necessarily bleak and rife with hopelessness, which we learn is motivation for not only her powerful words but her reason for leaving it all behind. Fans of the music might be disappointed but for those interested in the history, it makes for a solid jumping off point.