Review of Dope (2015) by Cliff J — 16 Dec 2016

I wanted this movie to be a truly original and insightful story masked as something more conventional. It turned out to be something pretty conventional masked as something more original and insightful.

It was probably pitched at Sundance as "Orange County with black nerds!" Don't get me wrong: I was entertained. The 90s soundtrack was fun, and the main characters appealing, even if the story was predictable as hell and the race politics pretty shallow.

I enjoy the occasional movie about nerdy upstarts caught up in something bigger, especially when well done. But I've seen this movie before, and setting it in "the hood" seemed less meaningful than the filmmaker thought it was.