''Roxanne Roxanne'' is a 2017 American musical

drama film In film and television, drama is a category or genre of narrative fiction (or semi-fiction) intended to be more serious than humorous in tone. Drama of this kind is usually qualified with additional terms that specify its particular super ...

written and directed by Michael Larnell. It stars

Chanté Adams Chanté Adams (born December 16, 1994) is an American actress. She starred in the 2017 biopic ''Roxanne Roxanne'', for which she received the Sundance Special Jury Prize for Breakthrough Performance. Life and career Adams was born and raised in ...

Mahershala Ali Mahershala Ali (; born Mahershalalhashbaz Gilmore, February 16, 1974) is an American actor. He has received multiple accolades, including two Academy Awards, a Golden Globe Award and a Primetime Emmy Award. ''Time'' magazine named him one of th ...

Nia Long Nia Talita Long (born October 30, 1970) is an American actress. Best known for her work in Black cinema, Long rose to prominence after starring in the film ''Boyz n the Hood'' (1991), and for her portrayal of Beullah "Lisa" Wilkes on the NBC sit ...

, Elvis Nolasco, Kevin Phillips and Shenell Edmonds. The film revolves around the life of rapper

Roxanne Shante Lolita Shante Gooden (born March 8, 1970), better known by her stage name Roxanne Shante, is an American rapper. Born and raised in the Queensbridge Projects of Queens, New York City, Shante first gained attention through the Roxanne Wars and w ...

. It was screened in the U.S. Dramatic Competition section of the

2017 Sundance Film Festival The 2017 Sundance Film Festival took place from January 19 to January 29, 2017. The first lineup of competition films was announced November 30, 2016. Awards The following awards were presented: * Grand Jury Prize: Dramatic – ''I Don't Feel at ...

Cast

** Taliyah Whitaker as young Roxanne *

as Cross *

as Peggy * Elvis Nolasco as Ray * Kevin Phillips as

Marley Marl Marlon Williams (born September 30, 1962), better known by his stage name Marley Marl, is an American DJ, record producer, rapper and record label founder, primarily operating in hip hop music. Marlon grew up in Queensbridge housing projects ...

* Shenell Edmonds as Ranita * Arnstar as

MC Shan Shawn Moltke (born September 6, 1965) better known by his stage name MC Shan, is an American hip hop and R&B recording artist. He is best known for his song "The Bridge" produced by Marley Marl, and for collaborating with Snow on " Informe ...

* Nigel A. Fullerton as

Biz Markie Marcel Theo Hall (April 8, 1964 – July 16, 2021), known professionally as Biz Markie, was an American rapper, singer, songwriter, DJ, and record producer. Markie was best known for his 1989 single "Just a Friend", which became a Top 40 hit in ...

* Tremaine Brown Jr. as Nasir * Cheryse Dyllan as Sparky Dee * Charlie Hudson III as Mr. Magic * Cindy Cheung as Nurse Mitchell *

Sean Ringgold Sean Ringgold, (born November 3, 1977) is an American actor and former bodyguard. He is best known for his role as Shaun Evans on the ABC daytime drama ''One Life to Live'', Junior on The Family Business and portraying Suge Knight in the Noto ...

as Keith *

Nelsan Ellis Nelsan Ellis (November 30, 1977 – July 8, 2017) was an American actor and playwright. He achieved critical acclaim for his portrayal of Lafayette Reynolds in the HBO television series ''True Blood'' (2008–2014), for which he won a Sa ...

as Mr. Lester

Release

In January 2017, Neon acquired distribution rights to the film. However, in December 2017, it was revealed that

Netflix Netflix, Inc. is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service and production company based in Los Gatos, California. Founded in 1997 by Reed Hastings and Marc Randolph in Scotts Valley, California, it offers a fi ...

had won worldwide rights to the film.

Critical reception

review aggregator A review aggregator is a system that collects reviews of products and services (such as films, books, video games, software, hardware, and cars). This system stores the reviews and uses them for purposes such as supporting a website where users ...

website

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...

, the film holds an approval rating of 70% based on 30 reviews, and an average rating of 6/10. The website's critical consensus reads, "''Roxanne Roxanne'' belatedly honors its subject with a gripping character-driven biopic that serves as a primer for a trailblazing career while telling an often tragic story." On

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created by Jason Dietz, Marc ...

, the film has a weighted average score of 74 out of 100, based on ten critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews". On RogerEbert.com, Nick Allen gave the film 2 stars. Comparing the movie to David O. Russell's ''Joy'', he said: "Like ''Joy'', this story feels overwhelmingly like the writer/director's version of their subject's lives, rendering ''Roxanne Roxanne'' a portrait that's as expressive as it is incomplete."

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Roxanne Roxanne 2017 films 2017 drama films 2017 biographical drama films 2010s hip hop films American biographical drama films African-American films English-language Netflix original films African-American drama films African-American biographical dramas Films set in the 1980s Films scored by RZA Hood films 2010s English-language films 2010s American films

Cast

Release

Critical reception

See also

References

External links