"Roxanne Roxanne", directed by Michael Larnell, is a biographical motion picture about the 1980s hip-hop musician Roxanne Shante. Largely a lesser-known lady rapper compared to the crossover stars who followed in her wake (like Salt & Pepa or Queen Latifah), Shante rose to fame in the mid-1980s by recording and releasing an "answer record" to the popular "Roxanne, Roxanne" by rap group UTFO. She built up a reputation as a highly competitive "battle" rapper and released a string of singles and a pair of LPs by the early 90s before slipping into semi-obscurity. In the 2000s, she garnered headlines for reinventing herself as a practicing psychologist and owning a community meeting space. But that positive press was short-lived as follow-up journalism found out that she fabricated all of her degree credentials. Fast forward to 2017 and the now middle-aged Shante has reinvented herself again as an elder stateswoman of hip-hop culture, who gives her blessing to a film biography of her life.
The film starts out In Media Res circa 1984 with a middle-school aged Shante (Taliyah Whitaker) already 'battle rapping' against older teens on the grounds of the Queensbridge housing projects that she and her family live in. Fast forward a couple of years (in movie time) and a fifteen-ish Shante (now played by Chante Adams). Her home life is a wreck: she shares a crowded apartment with two younger sisters and her mom Peggy (a salty Nia Long) drinks too much. Mom is fierce about locking the door after 9 p.m. For security purposes yet casually tells her boyfriend about a stash of cash that's being saved to move to a house of their own. Guess what happens to the money.
Shante loves her family but wants to escape her mom's verbally abusive ways. Already she has been risking her freedom by shoplifting high-end clothes that neighborhood hustlers will buy for pennies on the dollar. She soon pivots to a stint as a low-level drug dealer but that goes south when the dealer buddy whose "spare" apartment she moved into attempts to assault her.
She grudgingly moves back in with her family. A chance encounter with a tenement neighbor (Kevin Phillips as DJ Marley Marl) leads to the UTFO-response record on an independent label, and soon rap history is being made by the newly christened 'Roxanne Shante' (who, according to the film, was all of 16 when much of the film's narrative takes place).
From there, the film follows in the footsteps of certain biopic tropes, including a rocket-like rise to fame, a fall from grace, and then a peek at the beginnings of a comeback. A major part of the fall concerns Shante's relationship with Cross (a smoldering Mahershala Ali), a much-older boyfriend (and drug peddler) who turns out to be an abuser and later, an extortionist. A wildly alarming transaction takes place just before the movie ends, seemingly too soon.
Along the way, a handful of Shante's rap contemporaries have bit parts, specifically Biz Markie, MC Shan and Sparky D. Still, despite the producing pedigree of Forest Whitaker and Pharrell Williams, it seems that little of the period music during Roxanne Shante's heyday was able to be legally cleared for the film. Just a couple of songs by the artist herself are included, and "crate diggers" will note that some aren't necessarily the original versions.
Roxanne Shante is a worthy subject for a film. Certainly the topic of gender diversity in hip-hop is a core tenet here. Casual sexism and misogyny are rightfully villainized. Shante consistently runs up against boys and men who are mostly dismissive, exploitative or abusive. That said, the film never seems to take a step (or several) back and allow her to ponder why this is happening and what is informing her choices. At just barely 100 minutes, the film ends with more questions than answers. Often times, such is the reality of independent features. But the cinematography by Federico Cesca is solid. Director Larnell has other features in his past, and pulls double duties here as writer and director. But there's still something missing and viewers may come out of this thinking that they've only seen part one of a mini series.
