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Roxanne Roxanne

Roxanne Roxanne

Drama · 2017

The most feared battle emcee in the early 1980s in Queens, New York, was a fierce teenager from the Queensbridge projects. At the age of 14, Roxanne Shanté was well on her way to becoming a hip-hop legend, as she hustled to provide for her family while defending herself from the dangers of the street.

Movie details

Roxanne Roxanne

“Life is a battle.”

2017 Drama 1h 38m

Critical arithmetic

The consensus, allegedly.

IMDb

6.2 / 10

3.7K votes

Rotten Tomatoes

68 %

Tomatometer

Metacritic

74 / 100

Metascore

TMDB

6.0 / 10

Community rating

External scores via OMDb · CC BY-NC 4.0. Values normalized for display; availability varies by title.

The most feared battle emcee in the early 1980s in Queens, New York, was a fierce teenager from the Queensbridge projects. At the age of 14, Roxanne Shanté was well on her way to becoming a hip-hop legend, as she hustled to provide for her family while defending herself from the dangers of the street.

CriticWise case file

What this film says about your taste.

Not a recommendation score. A measure of how closely the film’s taste signals resemble yours.

The archetype split

Who fights over Roxanne Roxanne?

The split comes from the same five-axis model used by the test, not audience ratings or review sentiment.

Taste neighbourhood

Nearby on the taste map.

TMDB supplies the candidates. CriticWise reorders them by craft, strangeness, prestige, emotion, and pace.

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Hustle & Flow

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Where it lives

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Streaming availability data supplied by JustWatch.

Names above the title

The people responsible.

Directed by

Michael Larnell

Written by

Michael Larnell

Chanté Adams

Chanté Adams

Roxanne Shanté

Mahershala Ali

Mahershala Ali

Cross

Nia Long

Nia Long

Ms. Peggy

Elvis Nolasco

Elvis Nolasco

Ray

Shenell Edmonds

Shenell Edmonds

Ranita

Adam Horovitz

Adam Horovitz

Attorney Schwartz

Germar Terrell Gardner

Germar Terrell Gardner

Antwan

Court is in session

Put Roxanne Roxanne on trial.

Two incompatible taste archetypes. One film. Read the arguments, then issue a completely binding cultural ruling.

The defence The Prestige Tourist

“Sincerity is not manipulation.”

The film risks embarrassment to make emotion communal, and that openness is harder than fashionable detachment.

The prosecution The Adrenaline Seeker

“The strings are showing.”

Every cue tells you exactly what to feel and when, leaving sentiment to do the work character should have done.