Another rags-to-riches-to-fractious-decline tale of pop stardom, but it’s also vigorously entertaining, educational, and perhaps more provocative than most. Because we’re talking about N.W.A., progenitors of gangsta rap and the first group to channel black rage at abusive police into, for want of a better word, music.

This piece of hip-hop history, centering on Easy-E, Dr. Dre, and Ice Cube (Jason Mitchell, Corey Hawkins, and O’Shea Jackson, Jr., Cube’s son), unfolds in the ’80s, but the group’s message still speaks to our post-Ferguson world. I’m not a fan of the subgenre, but this is a pretty good movie. (147 min)