Dope

"A movie about nerds who love 90's hip-hop showing up a gangster? Yes, please!" was my initial reaction to this movie when I saw it on Netflix. So, last night, I stayed up and watched the movie. And...? Well, I think there's plenty of enjoyable things in this movie, but there's also just some dumb stuff that I can't get past that make this movie a little odd to me.

First of all, I really like Malcolm. He is an enjoyable lead, relate-able and is well developed, not to mention that the actor gives a solid performance. It's easy to care about this character.

I also really liked the set-up of the movie. It had an interesting idea and seemed to have a good way of carrying it out.

Thirdly, I also loved the comedy. There are some legitimately funny moments in this movie.

But...... Let's get into the bad.

This is a bland looking movie. The cinematography is pretty standard, the set design in lack luster, and, outside of Malcolm's clothing, nothing really draws your eye to the screen. Just blah.

The side characters. I have no connections to these side characters. Dicky I only remember because she was a lesbian. That's her only character trait. The other friend is also bland. He's so bland, I don't even remember his name. But the WORST was Malcolm's love interest. I don't remember her name, either. She just seems so self- centered, and all we know is that she dated this one guy and wants to go to Six Flags. Not enough to make me invested in her.

Lastly, the film doesn't know when to end. Seriously. It has, like, 4 different endings. I thought it was over when Malcolm revealed his plan to a man that screwed him over. The music swelled, and the line was given a lot of emphasis. But, NOPE! There's another ending where Malcolm gives a big speech, the music swells, and then there's a line with a lot of focus on it. Is it over? Nope! Chuck Testa! Then there's a boring third ending with the a fore mentioned love interest that we don't care about. There was a fourth ending, and that one is the best. It just ends with a sort of cliff hanger, and I appreciated that ending. The first ending and last ending are just fine. But, they just had too much to cram in and it became too crowded.

So, this film is pretty funny and mostly enjoyable, but I don't think I'm going to watch it again any time soon.

"Dope" is not the movie that you probably expect when hearing the title. I want to stress that. The word itself has negative connotations (with most thinking immediately of drugs when they hear it), and though it certainly deals with things of that sort, it isn't really that simple. The few definitions of the word are addressed at the beginning of the film, most notably as a slang term referring to something that is "very good". This definition, my favorite of the few, seems to capture the movie in the best light.

Essentially, this is a coming-of-age picture. Our main character is Malcolm, a high-school senior who's obsessed with 90s hip-hop culture, and who constantly shows this affection by emulating the fashion and language of the time. He's a straight-A student with perfect SAT scores and seems to have everything under control - despite a few bullies - until he finds himself taking a chance invitation to a drug dealer's birthday party along with his two best friends. From there, he's taken on a crazy adventure littered with bad choice after bad choice, all the while juggling college applications and interviews that will surely determine his future.

Writer/Director Rick Famuyiwa strips the film of any tired clichés or stereotypes for African-American characters, and surprisingly manages to infuse details that question the issues of racism and class discrimination. But above all, he makes a really fun movie. The writing is sharp and humorous, with the acting from the main trio - Shameik Moore, Tony Revolori, and Kiersey Clemons - complimenting it excellently. And though it's undoubtedly rough around the edges, its wit and ceaseless energy make it irresistible.

Dope is suave, fresh and actually Dope. It is an original, coming of age film featuring 3 high school students, who gets involved with a troublesome gang, & later circumstances forces them to mature from geeks to drug dealers in a snap. The "dopeness" of the film is largely due to its consistent charisma and energy, plus the sheer volume of assets to like. Despite its grassroots setting, there is no melodrama to be found here as the script focuses on being light, engaging & seriously funny. The soundtrack was an absolute nostalgic treat, headlining 90s hip hip like its nobody's business. The lead actors were very relatable as they perfectly nailed their roles from innocent, hormonal adolescents, to desperate for a way out teens. What takes the cake however, is the films main message that is again, original & unique but also powerful. The films shares with us that there is a way to get out of a bad social construct, to make something of yourself. How the film reaches this messaging however, is riddled with questionable plot turnouts and Hollywood sugarcoating. Besides this, seeing Dope was an enjoyable experience. It is well directed, acted and boasts a storyline rarely seen before. For that, the film deserves a 7/10.

As I was driving to the movie theater to see "Dope" (R, 1:43), I was thinking about how that word is usually used as a slang term and in one of three main ways. Then, as the movie opened, those three definitions appeared on the screen. (Thank you, filmmakers, for making it so easy for me to decide how to open this review.) In short, dope can mean a stupid person, something really cool or refer to an illegal drug. All this begs the question, which of those definitions applies to this film? Short answer: all of them.

The movie centers on highly intelligent black high school senior Malcolm (Shameik Moore) and his two friends, multi-racial Jib (Tony Revolori) and lesbian Diggy (Kiersey Clemons). Now, I only use these labels because these characters use them for themselves. (They also refer to each other using the n-word, a situation which is used both for laughs and social commentary.) Here's another label the three use for themselves: geeks. Malcolm, Jib and Diggy geek out over 1990s-era rap and hip-hop. They see the 90s as a golden age for these kinds of music and they dress accordingly. In their spare time, however, we see them practicing in their punk rock band. Yup, the three main characters use lots of labels, but they defy them at the same time. For example, even though they see themselves as geeks, it doesn't mean that they're not cool or are incapable of getting along with non-geeks. In short, these labels describe the characters, but don't define them. And that distinction is really what this movie is about.

"Dope" takes place in one of the rougher neighborhoods in L.A., another circumstance that Malcolm seems intent on rising above. He is just hanging out with his friends and working at getting into Harvard when a chance meeting with a neighborhood drug dealer named Dom (A$AP Rocky) gets him invited to Dom's birthday party at a local club. The party… doesn't exactly go as planned. Malcolm ends up leaving with Nakia (Zoë Kravitz), a girl who Dom thinks belongs to him, but seems more attracted to Malcolm for being "different from the others" (and maybe because he can help her pass her GED). The next day, Malcolm discovers that he has also left the party with a significant amount of Ecstasy (aka Molly) and a gun that does belong to Dom. When a cell phone in the bag rings, the caller demands the drugs. Before Malcolm can hand off the contents of his backpack, the cell phone rings again. It's Dom, calling from jail and warning Malcolm not to turn over the drugs to the other caller. Malcolm is caught in the middle.

He receives instructions from Dom as to where to take the drugs, but he and his friends are still being pursued by that first caller (Amin Joseph). Malcom, Jib and Diggy take the drugs to a fancy house where Dom sends them and they meet their contact's young adult children (Keith Stanfield and Chanel Iman). Daddy's not home, so the five of them decide to hang out. Things don't go much better at the house than they did at the club the night before, so Malcolm and his friends are forced to improvise. They concoct a plan to get rid of the drugs with relatively little risk to themselves and the possibility of some significant rewards. They enlist the help of an old acquaintance from band camp (who also happens to be both a druggie and a hacker) by the name of Will Sherwood (Blake Anderson). Their audacious plan may solve all their problems, or it may land them in jail – or worse. No matter what happens, the three friends seem destined to shed at least some of their labels, and maybe gain some new ones.

"Dope" reminds me of the inner-city-set films of the 90s (the very period with which the three main characters are obsessed), but with less violence and more laughs. The movie uses humor to add entertainment value to the story, but also as a different way of approaching some very important issues, including ongoing problems in our inner cities and the use of labels in our society at large. The film's pedigree certainly contributed to its effectiveness. "Dope" is produced (and partially narrated by) Forest Whitaker, while Sean Combs and Pharrell Williams share executive producer credits. It also doesn't hurt that the movie is so well-written and well-directed by Rick Famuyiwa ("Brown Sugar", "The Wood") and has a strong, though little-known cast.

Malcolm and his friends are appealing and sympathetic characters, but make some morally questionable decisions. While the script makes light of their circumstances, it also slyly comments on them, but without suggesting definitive right and wrong answers. This is a coming-of-age movie that is both enjoyable and thought-provoking. There are a few too many loose ends for my taste and I found much of the plot to be a little too morally ambiguous, but this is still one of the best urban dramas in the past 20 years. To sum up this review, let me suggest some slightly altered meanings for the film's title: Dope can refer to some of the movie's main characters, the curse of their neighborhoods or anyone who won't at least consider seeing the film because of labels they may have already assigned to it. "B+"

Rick Famuyiwa's "Dope" opens by providing its titular term with three distinct definitions - to paraphrase, the word can mean an illegal drug, a stupid person, or an affirmation of something's greatness. For the next one-hundred and ten minutes, the film works to illustrate all of those features in some way or another through a lens that's unique, refreshing, and respectful to its characters and their cultures.

Our main character is Malcolm (Shameik Moore), a black teenager carefully surviving in his crime/drug-ridden neighborhood of Inglewood, California, Despite being influenced by modern forces like the internet and Bitcoin, he loves nineties hip-hop and the culture of yesteryear, and so do his two closest friends, Jib ("The Grand Budapest Hotel"'s Tony Revolori) and Diggy (Kiersey Clemons), who play in his punk band. Malcolm is going for what seems to be the impossible, which is applying for Harvard and forging a successful career path post-high school. However, in the mix of taking his SAT and writing his college entrance essay, Malcolm gets caught up in the underworld of illegal drugs and crime in the most unconventional way possible. After being invited to a party thrown by a drug dealer (rapper A$AP Rocky), Malcolm works to craft a name for himself by getting invested in the online drug-drealing world, using the help of a local hacker and Bitcoin to create a huge influx of revenue for him and his friends.

Famuyiwa attempts to do the same thing to African-Americans that John Hughes did with the middle class high school population in the 1980's, which is cut through the stereotypes, the incredulous romances, and what adults perceive teenagers to be like to really get to the heart of them as people. People with choices and decisions to make that are often times as big or as impacting as the ones adults make. The difference is, however, adults come equipped with life experiences where teenagers generally come equipped with their own instincts and peer pressure in their decision-making.

"Dope" shows the constant struggles of being a moral teenager engulfed in a society driven by illegal behavior and surrounded by peers who are nudging you onto a more dangerous pathway than on which you'd like to travel. The fact that it pays homage to the music and the urban movies of the 1990's is interesting because "Dope" doesn't focus on an anti-hero in a gritty neighborhood, much like the films of that era did. Instead, adhering to the principles of Hughes, it turns to the geek and, in turn, humanizes and paints him as a character trying to find himself in the mix of all this madness.

Famuyiwa and cinematographer Rachel Morrison crossbreed the early 1990's hip-hop culture with the contemporary technology of the mid-2010's, causing a culture shock of epic proportions in "Dope"'s aesthetic variety. "Dope" has the cinematic look of acid-washed jeans, the feel of a sun-soaked day at the beach, and the smells of everything from acne cream, sunscreen, and marijuana ostensibly infused into every scene. It's the kind of aesthetic that's so detail-centric it almost channels the likes of Wes Anderson, minus the meticulous symmetry in every scene.

Shameik Moore must be given considerable praise for his role here, which can only be described as a breakout performance. His human characteristics, carefully painted by Famuyiwa, his conflicted personalities, and his subtle arrogance, all traits that, in the end, make him very likable, echo the sentiments of Cuba Gooding, Jr. in "Boyz 'N The Hood," another conflicted soul caught in between being moral in a morally bankrupt area or taking the easy way out. Alongside Revolori and Clemons, two supporting roles that, again, go far and beyond the call of supporting roles, Moore is a talented who you find yourself being unable to take your eyes off of throughout the entire film.

Above all the aesthetic and character charm, "Dope" is a surprisingly optimistic film. It doesn't get bogged down by environmental cynicism, even when Malcolm has to turn into the kind of people he never wanted to associate himself with. Famuyiwa takes a brave step in the opposite direction of his peers, capturing acts like drug-dealing and backhanded deals in a light that accentuates joy and positivity, but it's all this that make "Dope" an even more fascinating character study, coming of age story, and a subversive tale about life in an urban area.