Biopic an injustice to life of 2Pac

rapper’s troubled life has been one of those long-gestating projects that you could not help but want to see come to life. Directed by music video director Benny Boom, the film is a schizophrenic display of indecisive filmmaking.

The problem starts with the framing device. Whoever suggested that all biographical films must be built around an interview with a journalist really needs to be stopped.

All Eyez On Me starts with 2Pac in a dark cell being interviewed, skirting around questions and looking generally uneasy. The voice over by Snoop Dogg, the wide framing of the supporting characters and the Tv-movie like cinematography, all combine to create distance between the story and viewers.

Benny Boom lacks the directorial maturity to lean into the more emotional and personal moments of Pac’s life and instead opts for the big numbers. The public displays that are never really able to offer us insight into the interiors of this tortured artist. The film cruises through with a cavalier casualness.

The treatment of Pac’s conviction for sexual assault is also problematic. It feels more like a footnote than a formative experience and once it passes, Boom fails to show us the ways it reverberates into how Pac chooses to live his life after.

Pac had a way with words, his ability to weave double entendres, make use of metaphors and lash and soothe at the same time was visceral.

It’s no wonder then that, even with his death at 25, so much more of his music was released posthumously.

The music itself and the way it’s used in the film is decorative. As opposed to using Pac’s musicmaking