If you’ve seen ‘8 Mile’ or the recent cinematic treat ‘The Forty-Year-Old Version’, then in a movie centered around battle rap, you’re an MC with something to prove. You know that your prospect is always choking. First battle. Based on Angie Thomas’ novel of the same name and directed by Sana Lathan, On the Come Up is no exception.
Briana Jackson (Jamila C. Gray), nicknamed Buri and known as Lil Law on the microphone, freezes in front of her opponents and chases her fame for the rest of the film.
The film seems geared towards teenagers in that it overdescribes events and leaves little room for subtext. But at the same time, Kay Oyegun’s scripts often feel a far cry from what her teens actually do. Bri and her friends Sonny (Miles Gutierrez-Riley) and Malik (Michael Cooper Jr.) always seem to know what the most mature do and say. And predictable narrative arcs, accidental lighting from scene to scene, and Lathan’s commitment to minimalist material all add something you might soon forget once you’ve seen it.
Da’Vine Joy Randolph’s performance as Bri’s aunt and manager Pooh stands out from the crowded ensemble cast of supporting players whose many background stories keep us from connecting with Bri and her family as much as we want. But even Randolph, and even Lathan, who also delivers a solid performance as Bri’s ex-drug-addicted mother Jay, is a clunky piece that chews more out of the novel than it can properly chew within two hours. You can’t beat the script.
What it really misses here is making the most of the battle rap scene that forms the spine of the narrative. Gray as Buri delivers well enough non-expletive rhymes written by real-life rapper Rhapsody, but the canned applause baked into the scene often doesn’t sound true. , sounds more like spoken-word poetry than the unbanned battle rap that the movie is incessantly saying.
Still, despite its flaws, the film is a welcome update to the brazen types of men used to ruling the mic by bringing a character like Buri into the Battle Rap executive. The lyrics feature a constant stream of word-bending tropes worth savoring.
empty crane
maybe my sister
Said I might be like Bay’s sister
You’ll face a bigger guy, but this fight is just an elevator
Elevate her like Solange and watch me rise
to the table.
In other words, turn closed captions on.
on the come up
Violence and adult language are rated PG-13. Running time: 1 hour 55 minutes.theater or Stream with Paramount+.