More than most biopics, Straight Outta Compton perfectly mirrors the arc of its subject: much like N.W.A., the film is at its best before they become millionaires. That's partly due to a problem inherent to telling this kind of story. It's always going to be more fun to watch a bunch of friends form a group and become superstars than it is watching them fall apart in a slow series of recriminations. Beyond the structural problem of telling a story that peaks in the middle, though, director F. Gary Gray approaches the two halves of the story in markedly different ways.