– FILM REVIEW –
– By Cate Marquis –
The comedy “Dope” starts out showing three definitions for that word – a term for illegal drugs, as a word for a clueless, dimwitted person, and as slang for something cool. In a way, all three definitions fit the story in the surprising, original and very funny “Dope.”
A hit with both audiences and critics at Sundance, “Dope” is an original twist on the high school genre. Malcolm and his two friends are self-described “geeks,” who suffer the treatment given geeks by jocks in every stereotypical high school movie -beaten up, stuffed into lockers, tripped in the hallway. But instead of setting it in the stereotypical suburban, mostly-white high school, “Dope” updates and transports that premise to a rough high school in a poor, gang-filled part of Los Angeles. By throwing stereotypes about both kinds of high schools in a blender, “Dope” comes up with a fresh, delightful concoction that is both funny and true.
Malcolm (Shameik Moore) and his best friends Jib (Tony Revolori) and Diggy (Kiersey Clemons) love ’90s hip-hop and show that affection by adopting the clothes and hairstyles of the era. This makes them social outcasts at their high school, where they are bullied for “acting white” – riding skateboards, staying away from drugs, getting good grades and wanting to go to college.
Malcolm is the shy, well-behaved only child of a single mother, abandoned by his Nigerian father before he was born. He and his two best friends, racially-vague Jib and cross-dressed lesbian Diggy, negotiate past drug-dealers, gang members, street violence and the struggles of life while trying to focus on SATs, college applications and getting the grades to get into college. Malcolm does not just want to go to college – he wants to go to Harvard.
These three friends embark an adventure that is framed by parody of high school movie conventions but deals with serious, real-world stuff. Through a series of events, the three friends end up at a drug dealer’s party, which plunges them into a situation that threatens Malcolm’s shot at college – unless they can think their way out of it. That journey takes them out of their comfort zone and brings them into contact with a hilarious array of new characters – a drug-loving white hacker college student, a clueless rich Hispanic kid pretending to be from the ‘hood – plus Bloods gang members, a beautiful high school dropout, and a wealthy business owner who is doing Malcolm’s Harvard interview.
To this innovative twist, story, director Rick Famuyiwa adds a wonderful comic touches and terrific performances, which make this rule-breaking film funny, fresh and filled with unexpected twists. Director Famuyiwa brilliantly uses tropes from suburban high school movies and drops them into the rough streets of LA with hilarious results, while also subtly nudging the audience to reconsider their assumptions.
The film is also aided greatly by a talented cast. Moore creates a character who is shy and sweet, but whose native intelligence quietly bubbles underneath. Riding their bicycles around town, dodging clusters of Bloods gang members, the three friends hang out and girl-watch together. Revolori, who was so wonderful as the bellhop in “Grand Budapest Hotel” last year, plays the hesitant one of the trio, adding the right touch of “and your point is?” to his blank gaze, when people are puzzled by this apparently Hispanic or dark-skinned Italian guy who identifies as black. Clemons is the outspoken one as Diggy, the young lesbian who ogles girls with the other two, and occasionally has to prove “he” is a she. The streets of LA, palm trees and housing projects, are a surprisingly non-threatening setting in Famuyiwa’s knowing comedy, who also adds a great deal of culture-clash fun whenever rich and poor, white and black worlds intersect.
This very funny comedy upends and plays with the stereotypes of both the gritty life-in-the-hood crime thriller and the suburban high school comedy, and delights us at every turn. “Dope” is a fabulously entertaining, and thought-provoking, film that breaks rules and challenges ones assumptions about people. It is worth breaking out of your own assumptions to see this highly entertaining film.
© Cate Marquis 2015
