on the come up movie review

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‘On the Come Up’ Review: Battle Rap’s Next Big Thing?

This film adaptation of the Angie Thomas novel follows a teenage rapper with a dream.

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By Beandrea July

If you’ve seen “ 8 Mile ” or the more recent cinematic delight “ The Forty-Year-Old Version ” you already know that in a movie with battle rap at the center, the would-be MC with something to prove always chokes in the first battle. “On the Come Up,” the new movie based on the Angie Thomas novel of the same name and directed by Sanaa Lathan, is no different.

Brianna Jackson (Jamila C. Gray), nicknamed Bri and known as Lil’ Law on the mic, freezes in the face of an opponent and spends the rest of the film chasing her titular come up.

The movie seems geared to teenagers in the way that it over explains events and leaves little room for subtext. Yet at the same time, Kay Oyegun’s script often feels out of touch with the way real teenagers actually behave. Bri and her friends Sonny (Miles Gutierrez-Riley) and Malik (Michael Cooper Jr.) seem to always know the most mature things to do and say. And the predictable narrative arc, the happenstance lighting from scene-to-scene and Lathan’s minimalist take on the material all adds up to something you might watch once and promptly forget about.

Da’Vine Joy Randolph’s performance as Bri’s Aunt and manager Pooh stands out from a crowded ensemble cast of supporting players whose many background stories distract us from connecting with Bri and her family as much as we might like. But even Randolph — and Lathan, who also delivers a solid performance as Bri’s formerly drug-addicted mother Jay — can’t overcome a clunky script that bites off more from the novel than it can properly chew in under two hours.

The real missed opportunity here is making full use of the battle rap scenes that form the spine of the story. Gray as Bri delivers the expletive-free rhymes penned by the real-life rapper Rapsody well enough, but the canned applause baked into the scenes often doesn’t ring true. Bri’s rhymes sound more like spoken word poetry than the no-holds-barred battle rap that the film is continuously saying she, the daughter of a revered slain rapper, has in her DNA.

Yet even with its flaws, the film, by bringing a character like Bri into the cadre of battle rap, is a welcome update to the male bravado types we’re used to seeing dominate the mic. And the lyrics feature a steady stream of word bending metaphors worth savoring:

Cranes in the sky I might a be a little sister Said I might be like Bey’s little sister Goin’ up against a bigger guy but this fight only gonna elevator Elevate her, like Solange, watch me rise To the seat at the table.

In other words, turn on the closed captions.

On the Come Up Rated PG-13 for violence and adult language. Running time: 1 hour 55 minutes. In theaters and streaming on Paramount+ .

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‘on the come up’ review: sanaa lathan’s cool and confident directorial debut.

Premiering in Toronto, the actress' directorial bow is an adaptation of Angie Thomas' bestselling novel about a young woman trying to become a rapper.

By Lovia Gyarkye

Lovia Gyarkye

Arts & Culture Critic

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On the Come Up Still - TIFF - Publicity - H 2022

Somewhere in Garden Heights, the fictional American town at the center of On the Come Up , is an imposing mural of Lawless, one of the community’s biggest rappers. His daughter Bri Jackson (Jamila C. Gray), who goes by the moniker Lil’ Law, makes frequent visits to this vibrant portrait when she needs guidance. It’s a meditative exercise, a way to refocus. Bri is determined to become one of the greatest rappers to come out of the Heights — just like her dad.

Lathan’s adaptation, with a screenplay by Kay Oyegun, captures the youthful edge and poetry of Thomas’ novel. On the Come Up is a wide-ranging narrative about family, chasing your dreams and maintaining integrity that will undoubtedly find fans among younger audiences. Even when it stacks the clichés, becoming a bit too reliant on the requisite melodramatic beats, the film doesn’t lose its heart.

Rapping is another salve. Standing in The Ring, a local boxing center where aspiring and established rappers come to battle, Bri assumes a different personality. Her lyrics, penned here by North Carolina rapper Rapsody, showcase a slick flow and verbal dexterity. Her performance doubles as a release valve for the pressures around her. When she gets in the zone, she soars.

On the Come Up opens with Bri trying to battle with M-Dot (GaTa), a local rapper, but the young girl chokes before the competition even gets underway. Thrown by M-Dot’s references to her mother’s heroin addiction and her father’s passing, Bri furiously rushes off the stage instead of spitting back. Following closely behind her is her manager and aunt, Pooh (a marvelous Da’Vine Joy Randolph), who tries to remind Bri that failure is part of the process. She encourages her niece to never give up, one of the film’s recurring lessons.

An increased profile makes Bri question Aunt Pooh’s ability to manage her. After a dicey situation — instigated in part by Pooh’s longstanding feud with another gang — gets the young rapper banned from The Ring, Bri drops her aunt and signs with Supreme. But that sweet deal has a sinister underside, especially as Supreme encourages the young rapper to write songs and adopt a persona that caters to rap’s biggest consumers — white suburban kids.

As an adaptation, On the Come Up doesn’t have much narrative flexibility. Lathan is wed to Thomas’ complex story, which doesn’t always translate seamlessly to the screen. There are parts of the film — Bri’s parking-lot battle with another woman rapper, Sonny’s burgeoning queer relationship and even Bri’s own romantic ventures — that feel undercooked, touching on themes we never return to. The film, already nearly two hours, would need to be twice as long to fully develop these plot points, which lean on cliché and awkward exposition to fit into the narrative.

On the Come Up finds its groove and feels most realized when it focuses on Bri’s battles, especially the moving finale, and her relationship with her mother and Pooh. Rapsody’s clever and expressive lyrics deepen our understanding of Bri, who struggles to define herself amid all the rumors about her family. Each rap that Gray performs with a playful, endearing energy represents a step in Bri’s growth in becoming someone she’s proud of. That same tenderness flickers in Bri’s communions with her mother and Pooh, two women who approach and cope with their circumstances differently but share a commitment to Bri’s happiness and success: Their emotionally agile conversations swaddle the young teen in warmth when she needs it most and challenge her when she thinks she doesn’t, helping Bri get closer to the person she wants to be.

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