SummaryMalcolm (Shameik Moore) is a geek, carefully surviving life in The Bottoms, a tough neighborhood in Inglewood, CA filled with gangsters and drugs dealers, while juggling his senior year of college applications, interviews and the SAT. His dream is to attend Harvard. A chance invitation to a big underground party leads Malcolm and his fri...
SummaryMalcolm (Shameik Moore) is a geek, carefully surviving life in The Bottoms, a tough neighborhood in Inglewood, CA filled with gangsters and drugs dealers, while juggling his senior year of college applications, interviews and the SAT. His dream is to attend Harvard. A chance invitation to a big underground party leads Malcolm and his fri...
I had no expectation whatsoever with this movie. It was there, had good review, so I thought I'd give it a try. It began like any other movie, but blossomed early, stayed full, and punctuated the end with a very satisfying mark. I loved it, and it will remain a classic in my memory.
If you don't like this movie, you're wrong. It's that simple.
(Side notes regarding things that were on point: acting, pacing, originality, soundtrack, and heart)
If Dope were as earnest as Malcolm seems to be, you might expect it to be a bit of a bore. No worries on that count, though. Mr. Famuyiwa has a sleeve full of aces.
So many movies play it safe and predictable that you have to give it up to Dope for making consistently bold moves — even if they don’t always pay off. This vibrant film is a bit of a mess, but it’s a beautiful one.
The best description I can give this film is the name itself; this movie really exceeded my expectations. Maybe it's because I can greatly relate to the main character. This piece of work offered great performances from the actors, a witty and hilarious screenplay, a wondrous soundtrack, and some interesting themes. My hats off to Shameik Moore, he did an amazing job as the main character Malcolm. It was also nice to see some rappers as actors here including Vince Staples. What the movie did a great job of however was conveying a message and resonating with the audience, and you don't even have to necessarily like hip-hop to get it.
A coming of age story about 3 friends living in a tough neighborhood; if this was 60 years ago it would be Hell's Kitchen, but this is now so it's Compton in LA. Okay but too far fetched for my taste.
Writer/ director Rick Famuyiwa attempts to weave together the comedic stylings of ‘Superbad’ and context of ‘Boyz n the Hood’ with the sensibilities of a teenage “outsider” comedy/drama into what is essentially a “triumph of the geeks” proposition with a distinctly adult tone.
As a reflection of his own cultural preferences, Rick Famuyiwa chooses to make the 3 lead “geeks” uniquely “ghetto Hipsters” with the customary cultural appropriation that comes with it, in ‘Dope’ it features an obsession with 1990’s hip-hop culture which adds to the sense of being outsiders, the result of which is a delightful use of classic 90’s hip-hop within a strong soundtrack the way that ‘Superbad’ used classic soul & funk.
Indeed there’s much shared between ‘Dope’ and a number of coming-of-age outsider comedies like ‘Superbad’, from the risqué irreverent humour to the escalating outrageous situations, so when the novelty of the inner city setting wears-off, ‘Dope’ becomes very much your typical modern comedy which could easily have been named ‘Ghetto Geeks: A True Underdog Story’, albeit a contemporary version that makes good use of modern technology and social media.
Perhaps its biggest shortcoming is that for all the crazy goings on, ‘Dope’ is never really that funny, apart from a couple of scenes, and never gets close to the comedic levels of the films it clearly draws inspiration from. Despite this the unique nature of the setting does provide some rarely seen comedic fodder as well as scope for social satire, in fact the film builds towards an attempt at highlighting issues of systematic social discrimination in the US, with limited success it must be said.
The Bottom Line…
A moderately funny and mildly entertaining morality piece about staying true to oneself, ‘Dope’ is just about an original enough take on the teenage underdog comedy to be worth the watch, for Shameik Moore’s lead performance if nothing else, without leaving a particularly lasting impression.
The story within about a black teenager and his friends getting caught up in drug trade and crime is a story that should be told. Even with the satirical and goofy vibe that this movie has. But this movie just offers awkward dialogue, stiff acting, odd pacing and an inconsistent plot. Honestly have no idea how critics liked this one that much.
“Fun”, “One of the more commercial prospects coming from the Sundance Festival”, “Breakout star”, “Dynamic camera work”, “Vibrant comedy”, “Best movie soundtrack of 2015” and, once again, as happens 2-3 times every year I get pulled into a movie by the hype and sit there dumbfounded at what is up on the screen!
Let’s see what “Dope” has. A lot of violence, some gratuitous, definitely a lot of cursing, a woman urinating on the street and/or vomiting in the face ****, nudity, mostly female of course, a high school teenager **** a couple of times and, of course, let’s not forget drugs, a lot of drugs. And that soundtrack? Definitely a generational thing!
Is there a neighborhood in Inglewood, California, known as “The Bottoms”? Do A students, with their eyes on Harvard, have their sneakers stolen in school, physically taken from their feet, with no adults around to stop the thieves? Do they have their bicycles stolen on the way home and is there no place in-between a geek and a dope dealer in Black neighborhoods?
One of the reasons I love the movies is that I can learn about groups of people I may not know otherwise but in “Dope” I didn’t know whether I was watching a comedy about stereotypes, and/or clichés, or this is the way a segment of Americans live. I have never lived in a ghetto, always in a community of various races, sexes, genders, nationalities, religions, geeks, jocks and people who made their living from all the different walks of life but this is one movie I was completely lost.
Shameik Moore, as Malcolm, is a charmer as the Harvard want to be student who gets involved in a backpack full of drugs along with a gun , and, by the way, a Bitcoin, scheme. Tony Revolori, as Jib, who is ‘14% Black’ and Kiersey Clemons, as a butch lesbian, along with Moore are the stars of the movie as the best of friends. Zoe Kravitz is a much wiser than he is love/sex interest for the virgin Malcolm. I felt sorry for Chanel Iman as her role is demeaning to all women while Kimberly Elise, as a single working mother represents the best in women, which is rare in this movie. A$AP Rocky as a local dope dealer, Quincy Brown as Iman’s brother, Roger Guenveur Smith as a Harvard interviewer along with Keith Stanfield, De’Aundre Bonds, Blake Andeson, Rick Fox and Amin Joseph, along with producer/narrator Forest Whitaker add to the film in various roles.
The music, mostly by Pharrell Williams, along with Lee Haugen and Germaine Franco, definitely is not for me! The direction and screenplay by Rick Famuyiwa was lacking and confusing to me and for a ‘comedy’ there was very little reaction from the mainly Black audience.
I left the theatre asking myself, “What did I miss?”