Dope, which has 88% on Rotten Tomatoes, is movie 51 on the journey to 366 movies watching 7 every week. I’d been eyeballing this movie for a while especially after Graham Elwood gave it a positive review on Comedy Film Nerds Podcast a while back and it land on Netflix this week.
Malcolm (Shameik Moore) and his friends Jib (Tony Revolori) and Diggy (Kiersey Clemons) are 90’s geeks living in modern Los Angeles. Their life is a series of bullies, gang life, and obsessing over 90’s culture until the trio get invited to a birthday party of Dom (Rakim Mayers) and receiving a package that changes their lives sending them on a crazed adventure.
THE GOOD
I love the soundtrack of this film. The music the trio plays in their punk band is great and adds in great 90s songs spanning from hip-hop to nu-metal really hits the teenage nostalgia for me.
The story is intriguing and does some interesting things with nonlinear storytelling. The intense and life threatening situations the characters go through is offset nicely by comedy and teenage hijinks.
Shameik Moore stands out in a tremendous performance that shows a coming of age story of an interesting character. His drive is to get out of the Bottoms and into Harvard. It turns out that this shy, bashful geek is stronger and tougher than most people give him credit. Seeing him come into that side of his personality is a fun journey.
There is a scene early in the film where Dom is meeting with some of his fellow gang members and are discussing politics of drone use. It is refreshing to see individuals often shown as bloodthirsty idiots in films shown to have an intellectual side. It’s a great scene of dialogue that ends with the harsh reality of the world the characters live in.
THE BAD
Malcolm’s friend’s stories are only referenced briefly. It’s his story but they go through the trouble of showing us Diggy is a lesbian whose grandmother has her church pray for her to get rid of the gay. Then that’s kind of the end of her back-story and she is basically there to help Malcolm. There is even less story about Jib and the only thing I remember is we are told his is 14% African or something like that. Again, not sure there needs to be more, but it does feel like if they are simply the hunting party on this hero’s journey then the cutaway to the church group was unnecessary to the plot.
THE VERDICT
Writer/Director Rick Famuyiwa brings a fun story with a refreshing take on the story archetypes of the kids growing up in the bad part of LA. I give Dope 7 out of 10 bit coins
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