As the age of the rapper bio-pic gives birth to a few box office contenders, “Roxanne Roxanne” emerges as the runt of the pack, refused the level of star power and production money to do something momentous with the tale of Roxanne Shante, a teenage hip-hop artist from the 1980s who managed to make her mark on the industry using confidence, sheer skill, and a profound yearn to remove herself from all cycles of poverty and abuse. While there’s a story here with timely gender assessment and personal ache, writer/director Michael Larnell isn’t permitted to go big with the endeavor, which never celebrates the performer, instead focusing on all the misery in her life. “Roxanne Roxanne” isn’t “Straight Outta Compton.” Heck, it isn’t even really “All Eyez on Me,” but it does strive to respect Shante’s personal struggles and comfort with disaster as she fell into a brief career as a pint-sized M.C. who inspired utter devotion from those who managed to find her during the heyday of rap. Read the rest at Blu-ray.com