What ultimately justifies All Eyez on Me - at least for this Pac fan - are the frequent moments that touch that nostalgic nerve.
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If you grew up listening to his music, it’s hard not to get sucked into the movie the moment you hear the thumping bass of "So Many Tears" in the opening minutes. (The fight for 2Pac’s soul, in life and in death, will never end.) If there’s one thing we can agree on, it’s that no Pac biopic would ever satisfy all of the people who cling to his legacy.Īnd yet - it’s fucking 2Pac. All Eyez endured 20 years of squabbling to finally get made, and upon its release it’s already drawing the ire of those closest to him. 2Pac’s 1993 sexual assault case is presented as the "he said" version of the story, a study in how not to approach this kind of material. The rest are imagined depictions, some more problematic than others. The most effective scenes are word-for-word reenactments of YouTube-able moments. It’s a predictably hagiographic retelling of Pac’s life, if not an especially artful one. Swelling music telegraphs the melodrama the dialogue is forcefully delivered - particularly by Danai Gurira, who plays Pac’s mother, Afeni - but entirely unsubtle. Boom is known for making music videos, and it shows: each vignette has a superficial sheen but collectively, the narrative lacks cohesion. The movie unfolds in a brutally linear succession of expository set pieces - from Pac’s Black Panther parental origins all the way through his exploits as a rapper, actor, and convict - with one scene hurtling into another and landing awkwardly, if at all. All Eyez on Me, the new Tupac Shakur biopic directed by Benny Boom, is heavy-handed and runs about 45 minutes too long.