Review of Dope (2015) by Filmphonic — 20 Sep 2015

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.