Dope (2015)
Directed by Rick Famuyiwa
Malcolm is carefully surviving life in a tough neighborhood in Los Angeles while juggling college applications, academic interviews, and the SAT. A chance invitation to an underground party leads him into an adventure that could allow him to go from being a geek, to being dope, to ultimately being himself.
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In a series of misadventures reminiscent of Tom Cruise’s turn as a pimp in Risky Business, the trio turn to their chemistry and computer skills to move the Molly on the dark web, under the guidance of their Miyagi/Yoda, a stoner-hacker played by Blake Anderson.
It’s a frenetic piece brimming with references to other films, from a narrative similarity to “Risky Business” and “Go” to in-jokes of giving Kravitz the same hairstyle as Janet Jackson in “Poetic Justice.”
It’s also not a particularly novel coming-of-age movie, offering token inclusions of masturbation, prom, etc. It’s largely a drug-related caper somewhat reminiscent of adventures like “Risky Business” and “The Girl Next Door” in which shy kids get in over their heads.
The tone is fast and funny, with a modern “Risky Business” or “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off” vibe, but there’s an additional layer that stems from the violence of the neighborhood.
In a plot point reminiscent of Risky Business, all hell breaks out the week Malcolm is preparing for his interview to get into Harvard.
The film includes numerous references to early 1990s gangsta movies like Boyz N the Hood and Menace II Society , but in spirit it’s closer to Risky Business and Ferris Bueller’s Day Off , 1980s comedies about white teenage boys who go through a crazy adventure in a compressed time frame.
The movie, a hit at this year’s Sundance Film Festival, remarkably manages to share as much with John Hughes’ teen flicks of the ’80s, including a direct reference to Molly Ringwald, as it does with the “Boyz n the Hood” street dramas of the ’90s.
The film includes numerous references to early 1990s gangsta movies like Boyz N the Hood and Menace II Society , but in spirit it’s closer to Risky Business and Ferris Bueller’s Day Off , 1980s comedies about white teenage boys who go through a crazy adventure in a compressed time frame.
It pays homage to such early '90s hits as "Menace II Society," "Boyz N the Hood" and "Juice," but also strives to upend the stereotypes and tropes of those films.
He’s the soft-spoken virgin nerd straight out of the John Hughes playbook, only he’s curiously obsessed with ’90s hip-hop culture, which explains why he looks like Morris Chestnut circa 1991’s Boyz n the Hood.
You immediately think you’re in for a more technologically advanced take on John Singleton‘s Boyz n the Hood, but as the plot progresses, a sincere coming-of-age story rears its underprivileged head in the most unique way.
The story’s lead trio of misfit friends are “deeply obsessed with ’90s hip-hop,” yet “Dope” owes more to such white-cast teen movies as “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off” and “The Breakfast Club” than to such later, grimmer, youth-skewing “urban” films as “Boyz n the Hood” and “Menace II Society.”
Newcomer Shameik Moore shines with geeky gusto in a breakthrough role in the coming-of-age comedy/drama, which tackles racial stereotypes and 1990s culture as a kind of spiritual descendant of Friday and Do the Right Thing while still featuring a singular voice.
By invoking said nostalgia, Rick Famuyiwa harkens back to films like Do The Right Thing, in which racial tensions are explored expertly through what would normally pass itself off as a typical piece of entertainment.
It’s all of those things and none of them, never finding a reliable through line and both favorably and unfavorably evoking Spike Lee’s race relations classic “Do The Right Thing.”
There’s a little bit of Mookie, Spike Lee’s character in “Do the Right Thing,” in Malcolm’s observer-participant role, and maybe also a little bit of that Prince of Denmark that white dude wrote about that one time.
"Dope" isn’t exactly "The Breakfast Club," "Risky Business" or "Do the Right Thing," and yet in many ways it is.
The tone is fast and funny, with a modern “Risky Business” or “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off” vibe, but there’s an additional layer that stems from the violence of the neighborhood.
The film includes numerous references to early 1990s gangsta movies like Boyz N the Hood and Menace II Society , but in spirit it’s closer to Risky Business and Ferris Bueller’s Day Off , 1980s comedies about white teenage boys who go through a crazy adventure in a compressed time frame.
Actually, the strongest connection I see is to John Hughes films like “The Breakfast Club” or “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off,” escapade-fueled teen films with a surprising amount on their minds.
It's a bit of John Hughes ("Ferris Bueller's Day Off," "The Breakfast Club") mixed with vintage screwball comedies.
The story’s lead trio of misfit friends are “deeply obsessed with ’90s hip-hop,” yet “Dope” owes more to such white-cast teen movies as “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off” and “The Breakfast Club” than to such later, grimmer, youth-skewing “urban” films as “Boyz n the Hood” and “Menace II Society.”
Edgy, hilarious and relatable regardless of age, Dope is the grit of John Singleton 's classic, the quirkiness of Ferris Bueller's Day Off and the polish of a Spike Lee joint, all with Rick Famuyiwa as the mastermind.
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Between bouts of getting bullied, taking SATs and applying to schools, they shove themselves into a way-out-of-their-league underground birthday party at a hip-hop club which just so happens to be attended by Malcolm’s secret passion, sexy, math-challenged Nakia (Zoe Kravitz, deliberately channeling Poetic Justice-era Janet Jackson).
It’s a frenetic piece brimming with references to other films, from a narrative similarity to “Risky Business” and “Go” to in-jokes of giving Kravitz the same hairstyle as Janet Jackson in “Poetic Justice.”
It’s edgier than Hughes’ pictures ever were, of course—the passage of two decades have seen significant cultural change—but it has much the same affectionate perspective on teen misfits, and even ends with a personal statement reminiscent of the one Brian Johnson (Anthony Michael Hall) delivered at the close of “The Breakfast Club”—though this time, of course, it’s delivered on video rather than paper.
Actually, the strongest connection I see is to John Hughes films like “The Breakfast Club” or “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off,” escapade-fueled teen films with a surprising amount on their minds.
It's a bit of John Hughes ("Ferris Bueller's Day Off," "The Breakfast Club") mixed with vintage screwball comedies.
The story’s lead trio of misfit friends are “deeply obsessed with ’90s hip-hop,” yet “Dope” owes more to such white-cast teen movies as “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off” and “The Breakfast Club” than to such later, grimmer, youth-skewing “urban” films as “Boyz n the Hood” and “Menace II Society.”
"Dope" isn’t exactly "The Breakfast Club," "Risky Business" or "Do the Right Thing," and yet in many ways it is.
Similar to The Breakfast Club, Dope will be the go-to film for this generation of millennials.
“Dope” moves like a runaway train from character to character and set piece to set piece, recalling the energy of “Go” or even “Pulp Fiction” in its structure.
Famuyiwa appears to be striving to emulate the laid-back, spontaneous vibe of other Los Angeles sagas such as Pulp Fiction or Friday.
From here on in it frames these interesting characters within a crude crime caper narrative, which might hope to emulate films like Pulp Fiction , After Hours and Go but that judders along, frequently failing to convince.
Reminiscent of Go, Boyz n the Hood, or even Pulp Fiction with its manipulation of chronology, Dope is ultimately most engaging when it’s simply the three title characters bantering about their pressing criminal situation as they get in far over their head.
Imagine Ferris Bueller and his friends dropped into a "Boyz n the Hood"-"Pulp Fiction" mashup and you're halfway to "Dope," a funny take on the teen coming-of-age comedy that uses every cinematic trick in the book to tell an old story -- nerd loses virginity, gets into Ivy League -- in a fresh new way.
The film includes numerous references to early 1990s gangsta movies like Boyz N the Hood and Menace II Society , but in spirit it’s closer to Risky Business and Ferris Bueller’s Day Off , 1980s comedies about white teenage boys who go through a crazy adventure in a compressed time frame.
It pays homage to such early '90s hits as "Menace II Society," "Boyz N the Hood" and "Juice," but also strives to upend the stereotypes and tropes of those films.
The story’s lead trio of misfit friends are “deeply obsessed with ’90s hip-hop,” yet “Dope” owes more to such white-cast teen movies as “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off” and “The Breakfast Club” than to such later, grimmer, youth-skewing “urban” films as “Boyz n the Hood” and “Menace II Society.”
Early ’90s African-American coming-of-age dramas like Boyz n the Hood and Menace II Society turned inner city LA into a frightening jungle of predators and teenage victims, while a film like Friday conversely offered a ’90s LA coming-of-age story that managed to transform “the hood” into a ripe comedic landscape.
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What sets the plot in motion recalls another eighties Hall movie, “Out of Bounds,” in which the actor played Daryl Cage, an Iowa farm boy who mistakenly wound up in L.A. with a duffel bag full of drugs and found himself pursued by its real owner.
This opens the door for him to an odyssey that might have been taken from Martin Scorsese's After Hours.
From here on in it frames these interesting characters within a crude crime caper narrative, which might hope to emulate films like Pulp Fiction , After Hours and Go but that judders along, frequently failing to convince.
The movie becomes something of a deadline suspense-comedy, in the manner of “After Hours,” “Superbad” and (less auspiciously) “Date Night.”
“Dope” merges this drug plot with an “ After Hours ”-style escalating series of obstacles for Malcolm.