Review of Dope (2015) by Sam V — 03 Sep 2016

Malcolm Adekanbi (Shameik Moore) is a high school senior. He and his best friends, Jib (Tony Revolori) and Diggy (Kiersey Clemons), are described as "geeks". They live in a neighborhood of Inglewood, California called "The Bottoms," where crime is frequent. Malcolm is confident he will be admitted to his dream school, Harvard University, on his academic ability, but his school counselor calls Malcolm arrogant for thinking that Harvard would find his grades impressive, since their school is in a run-down L.A. suburb. He suggests Malcolm take the college application process more seriously, starting with his upcoming interview with businessman Austin Jacoby (Roger Guenveur Smith), a Harvard alumnus. While biking home, Malcolm is stopped by a drug dealer named Dom (A$AP Rocky) who instructs Malcolm to invite a girl named Nakia (Zoë Kravitz) to his party. Finding him charming, Nakia tells Malcolm to tell Dom that she will only accept his invitation if Malcolm can come. Despite his initial reluctance, Jib and Diggy talk Malcolm into going to the party and go with him. During the party, Dom and his crew meet in a back room to buy high-grade, powdered molly. The transaction is interrupted by a rival gang. Dom hides behind the bar where he finds Malcolm's backpack, which he fills with the drugs and a gun. He finds Malcolm, gives him the pack, and shoos him away from the club as the police sweep in. Nakia drives Malcolm home when Malcolm offers to help her study for her GED test. The next day at school, Malcolm discovers the drugs, gun, and an iPhone and deduces that Dom slipped them into his bag during the shootout. Malcolm need to figure out how to handle this situation and at the same time handle his future...

"Dope" got some real solid reviews and by the first look at it director Rick Famuyiwa seemed to have been able to create a great Spike Lee sort of vibe to "Dope" and pinpoint the 90s with Malcom and his geek friends. I reckon "Dope" is a coming of age film with a unique touch to the genre, but as the first half showed potential, soon enough it goes a bit downhill despite believable characters and environments. It just becomes pretentious, not that believable, clichéd and not that funny as you hope it would be. It´s technically well made and the direction is fine, but when the story loses track of reality it also loses the viewer in my point of view. Famuyiwa has tried to fit in every genre he could think of and that makes the movie a fragmented piece that is nothing and everything. He also tries so hard to put out his personal opinions at every given opportunity it almost becomes comic. "Dope" has potential as said, but only reaches halfway.