Just a few days ago I was explaining how nice it is to see smaller movies during the summer to bring back the joy of film during a time when big budgets and CGI reign supreme in favor of character and story and, most of the time, even fun. It's a shame that films like Jurassic World and Avengers are hogging all the glory and money when a film like Dope goes mostly unnoticed by the masses. What it lacks in explosions and cheap animation, it makes up for in quite literally everything else. It's a coming of age story to serve all coming of age stories that goes deeper with its portrayal of stereotypes and characters that serve to undermine those stereotypes. It's a comedy. It's a tragedy. It's a crime caper. It's a film about finding yourself and your passion versus what's expected of you. It's a great film.
Though it may be a bit too ambitious, Dope is smart, funny, insightful and fresh. It's an examination of cultural trends and debunking social expectation. It's like if John Hughes directed Boyz In The Hood. Dope follows Malcolm (played by an effectively restrained Shameik Moore), a nerd who lives in the ghetto of Inglewood. He's a nerd in the sense that his surroundings have labeled him as such. He's infatuated with 90s hip hop culture in both style and knowledge. He's smart and wants to go to college. He's in a band called Oreo. In middle to upper class white culture Malcolm may be labeled a hipster, but due to his surroundings he's been branded a nerdy social outcast. When a chance run in with a drug dealer occurs, Malcolm is thrown into a wild ride of running from thugs, dealers, having to sell a shit ton of drugs, and becoming a man all at the same time. He's joined by his "nerdy" friends Jib and Diggy, a lesbian with just as much to overcome as Malcolm in their society.
Though the film does feel like an urban John Hughes film dealing with themes such as psychological and moral growth as well as sexual maturity, it plays out a lot like The Big Lebowski. Malcolm was just in the wrong place at the wrong time with no escape once he's in too deep. Once he thinks he's safe, a new quirky, yet threatening character shows up to throw him back into the fray. And while it's definitely not as quotable as Lebowski (because, let's face it, what is?), it's still riddled with witty, clever, and memorable dialogue. The writing is spectacular. It defies convention in its characters. We all have these preconceived notions of different cultures that certainly have some truth to them, but are inherently flawed. The scene in the film where a group of drug dealers... in the midst of a drug deal... have an intelligent conversation about drone warfare is a prime example.
The writing is solid, the unique directorial viewpoint of the film is on point, but it's the acting that solidifies the film. Moore plays Malcolm as effectively restrained. He's a scared kid in a terrifying, low-income neighborhood living with a single mom and having to avoid certain streets to get home in fear of getting involved with gang activity. Like it says in the film a bad day in this city might be getting killed just for being in the wrong place at the wrong time, like the local burger joint. Yet all Malcolm wants to do is go to Harvard. He's not comfortable getting mixed up in the drug ring, but he's capable due to his surroundings. He doesn't succumb to the lifestyle, he makes the best of it. He grows from it, but it doesn't change him for the worse.
Dope has a great energy to it that's both hearty in its message and fun in its delivery. The film, well... it's pretty dope.
A
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