Review of Dope (2015) by Sean F — 08 Sep 2015

Part ridiculous, part thoughtful, "Dope" is a comedy-drama that effectively delivers on both counts.

As with most of the synergistic genres (romantic comedy, docudrama, etc.), it's difficult to pull off the comedy-drama (dramedy) with appropriate aplomb such that both seriousness and hilarity are fully represented.

The oft-encountered stumbling block for dramedies is making the film too funny for the audience to sense any authenticity in the points being made, or being so caught up in the serious side that the sporadic jokes do little more than incite the fleeting thought that "Oh, right, this movie's supposed to be funny, too.".

Nigerian director Rick Famuyiwa's indie dramedy "Dope" (2015) does not hit this pitfall. Popular at this year's Cannes Film Festival, "Dope" elicits enough laughs and has enough to say about issues of race, politics, the college application process, and much more to fill several movies.

Shameik Moore is Malcolm Adekanbi, a self-described geek in high school with the lofty goal of attending Harvard University. He and his friends Jib (Tony Revolori from "The Grand Budapest Hotel") and Diggy (Kiersey Clemons) are straight arrows whose biggest crime at the outset is an (almost unhealthy) obsession with '90s hip-hop.

After drug-dealer Dom (A$AP Rocky) takes a liking to Malcolm and invites him to a nightclub birthday party, the trio of friends are sucked into a hurricane of events that includes becoming unconsenting drug mules (and dealers), riding shotgun with an amorous woman on ecstasy, and giving an old-band-camp-friend-turned-drug-dealer the go-ahead to colloquially use the n-word - sort of.

If you think that sounds like there's a lot going on, you'd be right; the one definite drawback of "Dope" is that there are as many subplots going on as an episode (or season) of "Game of Thrones" (which, incidentally, is Malcolm's favorite TV series).

But the film has so much going for it that it hardly matters. For one, the acting is largely spot-on, and this goes far beyond Moore's performance as the protagonist. Truly, Clemons is brilliant in her supporting role, and Blake Anderson (of "Workaholics" fame) steals his few scenes despite showing up well past the film's halfway point.

Oddly, Revolori was the only slight disappointment. It wasn't anything to do with his acting, but, after impressing in "The Grand Budapest Hotel," he seemed rather limited by the script, playing a "third fiddle" to Moore and Clemons in terms of relevance.

"Dope" also overcomes a potential weakness in its early voiceover exposition. Though this characteristic would normally come off as lazy writing, it fits in nicely with the pace of the movie; the backstory is given right as the film gets moving (instead of as a "prologue" of sorts), and is seen again only very late in the movie.

The sporadic flashbacks do take the viewer out of the movie somewhat, but they're so brief as to be barely noticeable - more mildly irritating rumble strip than suspension-shredding speed bump. Regardless, fewer of these would have been appreciated.

As I said before, though, the movie has quite a bit to say. In an interesting parallel to the movie itself - which carefully toes the line between comedy and drama - Malcolm struggles with his own identity.

A school counselor calls him arrogant for trying to get into Harvard as the geek he is; instead, he should play up his situation as a stereotypical disadvantaged black youth - something Malcolm believes is "too cliché.".

As the movie nears its close, he writes in his application essay, "Let me tell you about two students. Student A is a straight-A student who lives in the suburbs of Los Angeles. He plays in a punk band with his best friends... He's a 90s hip-hop geek...Student B...lives with a single mother, doesn't know his father, and has sold dope...So am I student A or student B? Am I a geek or a menace?".

It's a question that, posed at the beginning of the film, may have had a clear answer; at the end, though, it's rendered moot. The point Famuyiwa makes is that a black high school student and his friends can be geeks. They can also be up to their ears in the drug scene. But which life gets them into college?

"Dope" is as cerebral as it is silly, and as thought-provoking as it is side-splitting. In a movie brimming with commentary and questions, most unanswered, it's on the viewer to decide what to take from it. What I got was a movie well worth watching.

After its successful summer festival premiere, "Dope" has now been released to theaters with limited showings as of Labor Day weekend.

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