Movie Review: Dope

Sixteen years ago a young director named Rick Famuyiwa brought us a film called The Wood that became a staple of every black family's film collection. The Wood followed the story of Mike, Slim and Rowland as they looked back at their lives growing together in The Wood. The film is a classic coming of age tale for Mike, a young black man. Famuyiwa continued making certifiable classic films like Brown Sugar and Talk To Me. Now Famuyiwa attempts to recapture that fire with the movie Dope. The story follows Malcolm Adekanbi and his friends as he attempts to gain entrance into Harvard. Things change so going into Dope you have to wonder if Famuyiwa's writing can reach a younger generation.

Dope starts with Malcom's day at school where he's bullied until the security guard Stacy steps in and protects him. Reminding the bullies that they should ask about Stacy. The reason I mention Stacy is because it's the same Stacy from The Wood. I just thought that was cool. Malcolm meets with his councilor Mr. Bailey who calls Malcolm arrogant for wanting to go to Harvard despite his perfect GPA. On the way home he meets Dom, a former nerd, turned drug dealer. Dom invites Malcolm and his friend to his birthday party. They attend the party and after some shenanigans Malcolm ends up with a bag full of drugs. Malcolm ends up being forced to sell the drugs for AJ and making some tough choices before the end of the movie.

Dope is a film that attempts to do a lot of things and it does some things better than others. One thing I found strange is the women in the film, and I don't mean the characters. The film takes place in Inglewood, California, and Rick Famuyiwa is from Inglewood. So am I just crazy to think it's weird there were no dark skinned women in the film? I don't mean there were no dark skinned women with speaking parts, I mean there were none. Not even an extra walking in the background. Seriously, what is that about?

Another problem is everything goes from realist to insane in just a few minutes. As Drake would put it "0 to 100, nigga, real quick." One moment girls ignore and avoid Malcolm like the plague, and just a few scenes later every girl wants him. One moment Malcolm is this shy kid and the next he's pulling guns on people. Without putting out too many spoilers there's a lot of moments like that. Characters do a complete 180 and then another 180 to end the film and it's kind of weird. The shy kid who stutters when he gets nervous is suddenly an expert at blackmail and extortion. Things like that leave you scratching your head.

For as many things as it does wrong it does a lot of things right. The movie points out how stupid it is to states something or someone is "white," just because they don't fall into a stereotype. It is stupid to question someone's blackness because of that and the film does a good job showing that. Another interesting point is the drug dealer Dom was supportive of Malcolm getting his education while his counselor Mr. Baily, an old black man, was upset and discouraged him for rocking the boat. It's interesting to point this out because it does happen a lot. Sometimes there are older black people who will discourage you for doing something outside the box.

The film also shows there are a lot of different types of nerds. It's not just people playing dungeons and dragons in the dark with pocket protectors who spit profusely when they speak. Dom is also an interesting character in the sense that he wasn't always this street guy, he used to be Dominique, just a nerdy kid. However, some bad choices forced him into the life, yet he's still explaining metaphorical concepts and making highly detailed pop culture references.

One of the best things about the film is the soundtrack. It's crazy and every track is awesome. From Nas to Korn and A Tribe Called Quest to Gil Scott Heron. It's just great. The movie is also really funny, there's a lot of masturbation jokes and a couple masturbation scenes not really needed, but it's still funny. There's several scenes that poke fun of white people for really wanting to say nigga.

Dope is a good movie, but it has it's flaws. It's a different kind of coming of age story than The Wood. In The Wood, Mike feels he becomes a man because he lost his virginity. In Dope, Malcolm believes he becomes a man after making some tough decisions and perceiving. Together they provide an interesting take on what it means to be a man. It's something that nobody else can really define for you. That's a big point of the film as well, you can't let people decide for you. People can't just decide you will be a stereotype or a nerd, or both. That's your choice to make.

You can hear Darrell on the CP Time and Powerbomb Jutsu podcasts. He also plays classic arcade games on The Cabinet
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