philpriestley

You might find yourself half an hour into this film wondering why you are watching it. It's not funny. The story line isn't entertaining or interesting.

After that subsides you might try to entertain yourself by considering how much they must have paid the cast. It's a large, expensive, recognisable cast. You can see that the money went into the casting budget and not into script writing.

You can tell where the jokes are, and where it's supposed to be funny, but it really isn't. I'm actually surprised some of these actors and comedians signed on.

I think this is what happens when a streaming service needs content. Big names, a vague story, thrown together. This might be remembered as the worst thing any of these guys ever made.

It's really hard to find an objective, unemotional examination of Tupac Shakur and his life. It really is. This documentary is another one of those very emotional takes - and you know it from the opening scenes, the overdub narration. It's really dripping in pathos. I find that hard because it needs to be scraped off to get to the truth.

The really difficult thing about Tupac is the 'black Jesus' tag. Since his death he has been repackaged and reimagined as this latter day Martin Luther King or Malcolm X character - and it seems to fit that he died young and was shot.

Look - Tupac was one of the most bipolar, manic, split personality dudes out there. At different times he wore crip blue and blood red. It wasn't a symbolic thing that was supposed to bring people together - he just went from one crew to the other and he was allowed to do that because he was Tupac and he was rich. There are countless stories about how he could be the nicest guy, he could impart wisdom, how he respected women and ask people to strive to be better... all true no doubt. There are lyrics that disrespect women, are abusive, stories of his behaviour that is impossible to condone, actions that he took that were beyond foolish and lacking in wisdom.

In death he has been painted as a martyr and a sacrifice. He has been claimed as a point of counter culture. He has been seen as a victim of the state (yeah he was too - why was the FBI following him and why did they feed him false information in prison that Biggie was behind him being shot?). As much as he was a firebrand of meaningful political concepts - he was used, he was prone to shallow and immature behaviour, he was deeply flawed, he was at time repulsive and cruel. Comedian Chris Rock makes a point that he wasn't assassinated - he got himself shot. Martin Luther King was assassinated. Malcolm X was assassinated, Bobby Kennedy was assassinated. Tupac got himself shot out of his foolish emotional and egotistical behaviour.

How do we ever resolve this? It makes one of the most compelling characters of modern music culture. He is powerful - no doubt whatsoever he is hugely powerful. If you're looking for a documentary that really turns the corner on that conversation and gets that job done - I'm sorry to say that this isn't it folks. Why? Well it allows itself to get dragged into the tractor beam of sentimentality idolisation too much. It's too heavy in that direction and it's a great shame because it really does prevent it from getting under the surface of a fascinating topic and an incredible man.

(And yes - I do love a lot of Tupac's music and I respect him as a lyricist and as a rapper)