Tupac: Resurrection

Rapper Tupac Shakur posthumously narrates his life from his 1971 birth (which he apparently remembers) shortly after his mom’s release from jail until his 1996 murder in Las Vegas. He was the son of two Black Panthers, and he used his music and charisma to climb from poverty and follow his parents’ footsteps into social-political activism, controversy, drugs and self-destruction. The amazing surprise of the film is how articulate and prophetic Tupac comes across now that his vision of world order is not obscured by lurid headlines. Its weakness is that Tupac talks about his arrogance and disillusionment but never fully embraces the fact that he wanted people to turn a ready ear to his artistry and a deaf eye to his criminal and decadent behavior. He wanted to have his cake and to eat it, too, as exemplified by adopting a thug-life mantra that he had tattooed across his torso and then redefining the word “thug” to neutralize his detractors. And director Lauren Lazin gives him plenty of footage to do just that.