Review of Dope (2015) by Word P — 16 Jul 2015

This Fathers day I had the great fortune to go see probably one of the most inspiring black coming of age stories that I have seen in a very long time.

In a day in age where good black film makers (with the exception of Antwan Fuqua and Steve Madden) are very few and far between; it comforts me that black directors like Rick Famuyiwa (Brown Sugar; The Wood) are around to save us from the over the top black stereotypes (none of them ever good) that we have to suffer through on a day to day basis from the likes of Tyler Perry and Lee Daniels.

In fear of going to see what seemed like a desperate attempt to recreate a version of Boyz In The Hood or at some point some weird nigga dressed up like Grand-MaMa Larry Johnson and spouting off stupid ghetto catch phrases like Hell-er(o) or I'm from the streets would show up; I went into this film with very low expectations and at-least the comfort that with Pharrell attached as a producer the music was going to be A-1 and the directors' last west coast based coming of age movie was The Wood and was amazing.

Not only did this movie completely blow my expectations out of the water; the movie is also hands down the best coming of age film I have seen in the past five years. This is one film you are just going to have to go and see at the movies to get a full grasp of what it truly is because the trailer doesn't come anywhere close to doing the movie justice and by the time word of mouth builds up it most likely will already be on VOD (Video ON Demand) or Blu-ray.

The pacing of the movie was great even with the paint by numbers premise. Great dialog, multi-dimensional characters, and an amazing soundtrack totally immerses you in this amazing atmosphere of extreme highs, unpredictable twists, and an amazing message that inspires, uplifts, and challenges the audience to not only examine themselves but also the world around them (Which I had hoped to get from Dear White People but didn't) which is definitely needed in the aftermath of cops gunning down black people and racist brain washed white people shooting up black churches in the media.

The only negative things I have to write about this movie is that the selection of eye candy for this movie was extremely lacking. The casting director must hate ass and titties because there is an abundance of flat chested basic hoes throughout the entire film which is especially unacceptable seeing how this is based in CALI where if you throw a rock in any direction you hit at-least five bad bitches.

The second would be that they took the typical lets get a couple of rappers to play the thugs angle which I wasn't too upset about seeing how ASAP Rocky and Tyga didn't take anything away from the scenes they were in (basically playing characters like "themselves"); and being pleasantly surprised by ASAP's acting chops.

In Closing this movie was great and I encourage you to see this film in theaters or rent it in some capacity so we can let the studios know that with them taking risk and financing and distributing amazing Indies like these they can shelve the Shitty Remakes and Sequels (That I would rather stream for free) and bring us amazing films from great writer/directors like Rick Famuyiwa.