Biggie and Tupac (IFC)

Directed by Nick Broomfield, with Biggie Smalls, Tupac Shakur, Suge Knight.

Documentary maker Nick Broomfield has previously stuck his very curious nose into the mixed up lives of prostitute, rock stars and serial killers. But even Broomfield initially seems to have bitten off more than he can chew when he decides to investigate the deaths of American rappers Tupac Shakur and Biggie Smalls.

Former friends who became rivals and bitter enemies, Tupac was murdered in Las Vegas in 1999 and Biggie was gunned down the following March in Los Angeles. Although their deaths were attributed to the much-hyped rap feud between Marion 'Suge' Knight's Death Row Records on the West Coast and Bad Boy Records on the East Coast, there were many details that just didn't add up.

Enter Broomfield and, although his style of documentary-making is idiosyncratic, to say the least, he manages to - almost inadvertently - stumble across facts about the murders which had been ignored. While his initial conspiracy theories sound unbelievable, it's not long until interviews with former LAPD officers unveil a tangled web of lies, sex and drug orgies, gang warfare, corruption and strong indications that police officers may have been directly involved in Small's death.

As Broomfield blunders from revelation to revelation, interviewing sleazy ex-cops, petrified former bodyguards and blubbering witnesses, the evidence against Knight mounts rapidly. Broomfield's theory that Shakur was killed to prevent him from leaving Death Row Records and Small murdered to support the idea of Shakur's death being gang-related suddenly starts to look a lot more believable.

Seemingly with little instinct for self-preservation, Broomfield's technique of arriving at people's doorsteps, boom mic and cameraman in tow pays dividends. He even beards Knight in prison, despite the fact that his regular cameraperson refuses to accompany him and the replacement, scared witless, manages to point the camera everywhere but at Knight's looming presence.

As with all his documentaries, Broomfield is the real star but 'Biggie and Tupac' provides a fascinating - and sometimes chilling - insight into the crazy world of gangsta rap.

Caroline Hennessy