Atrapado en los noventa

DOPE review by Mike Smith

Life changes for Malcolm, a geek who's surviving life in a tough neighborhood, after a chance invitation to an underground party leads him and his friends into a Los Angeles adventure.

This movie stuck with me for days. The story was rich, it kept me glued; it was exciting, crazy, funny, and all around a good watch. I connected with this film which is odd because I only share a small fraction of experience with this story. DOPE made me wanting more.

I really like that most of the cast is not well known; Shameik Moore is a great lead and his acting style reminds me of Don Cheadle. The fact that this was his first lead roll and he kept me glued to the screen makes me want to see what else he will do in his career. Tony Revolori is more of a comedic relief and Kiersey Clemons is more the voice of reason in the 3 person crew. DOPE has a big cast but everyone else is in and out really quickly. One person who made me laugh as soon as he hit the screen was Blake Anderson as the stoner hacker. There is so much to this movie that there could be another one made of just the co stars.

Sure this film is similar to others we have all seen in the past, the cuts and rewinds were well done and it felt different because it's been a while since I saw it in a film. I'm not a hip hop fan and not all of the music is hip hop and rap but I enjoyed it.

This film may not connect with you but I liked it. At times the film does drag a bit; most of the first act is forgettable and be prepared for more "N" words than Django unchained. Cheers and remember like won't suck as long as there is a good movie to watch.

7.5 out of 10

edited by Samantha Locke

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Coming out around the same time as Straight Outta Compton, which also deals with a group of friends in crime filled Cali that has a ton of music, Dope was a bit overshadowed in early August when it hit theaters. Make no mistake though, this is a really good film. It's highly entertaining, fast paced, and easily one of the most original screenplays of 2015 and perhaps of the past few years.

We follow a group of 'nerds' as they call themselves who are highly intelligent but also love 90's rap and jamming out themselves as their own band Awreeoh. It just so happens that they get caught up in a dangerously tricky situation involving some 'dope'. It's fair to say that most of what happens in the film is a bit too coincidental, it is. But what I loved most was this group of nerds and their reactions to each coinciding event. Shameik Moore plays the lead character, Malcom, and he does so wonderfully. If Moore plays his cards correctly, I think we will hear about this kid for years to come.

More importantly, you really buy into the groups dynamic. It never feels fake even when the situation surrounding them gets to be far- fetched. But I guess that also brings me to one of my negatives which is that after the first half or so it turns into Malcom's story. The first 45 minutes are great mainly because of the group's various endeavors. It's not a bad thing necessarily, it was just a tad less interesting. There's also a message behind the film that arises around the last 15 minutes or so and I can definitely see where it would be jarring to people. It doesn't take you out of the film per se but it is something you just have to accept.

So Dope's first half is up in there in my most entertaining 45 minutes of 2015. The last hour is fine but it definitely brings the film down a notch. If anything, Dope is worth watching if you're a fan of rap, a nerd, or you would like to see one of the best performances from someone who likely won't even be considered for an Oscar. Or maybe you just want to check in and see how you're favorite rappers Tyga and ASAP Rocky did on the big screen. Either way, check out Dope.

+Moore's breakthrough role

+Music

+Original idea turns out to be so fun

+Nerds seem like actual nerds

-Second half takes a big dip in quality

7.9/10

Dope is suave, fresh and actually Dope. It is an original, coming of age film featuring 3 high school students, who gets involved with a troublesome gang, & later circumstances forces them to mature from geeks to drug dealers in a snap. The "dopeness" of the film is largely due to its consistent charisma and energy, plus the sheer volume of assets to like. Despite its grassroots setting, there is no melodrama to be found here as the script focuses on being light, engaging & seriously funny. The soundtrack was an absolute nostalgic treat, headlining 90s hip hip like its nobody's business. The lead actors were very relatable as they perfectly nailed their roles from innocent, hormonal adolescents, to desperate for a way out teens. What takes the cake however, is the films main message that is again, original & unique but also powerful. The films shares with us that there is a way to get out of a bad social construct, to make something of yourself. How the film reaches this messaging however, is riddled with questionable plot turnouts and Hollywood sugarcoating. Besides this, seeing Dope was an enjoyable experience. It is well directed, acted and boasts a storyline rarely seen before. For that, the film deserves a 7/10.

Rick Famuyiwa's "Dope" opens by providing its titular term with three distinct definitions - to paraphrase, the word can mean an illegal drug, a stupid person, or an affirmation of something's greatness. For the next one-hundred and ten minutes, the film works to illustrate all of those features in some way or another through a lens that's unique, refreshing, and respectful to its characters and their cultures.

Our main character is Malcolm (Shameik Moore), a black teenager carefully surviving in his crime/drug-ridden neighborhood of Inglewood, California, Despite being influenced by modern forces like the internet and Bitcoin, he loves nineties hip-hop and the culture of yesteryear, and so do his two closest friends, Jib ("The Grand Budapest Hotel"'s Tony Revolori) and Diggy (Kiersey Clemons), who play in his punk band. Malcolm is going for what seems to be the impossible, which is applying for Harvard and forging a successful career path post-high school. However, in the mix of taking his SAT and writing his college entrance essay, Malcolm gets caught up in the underworld of illegal drugs and crime in the most unconventional way possible. After being invited to a party thrown by a drug dealer (rapper A$AP Rocky), Malcolm works to craft a name for himself by getting invested in the online drug-drealing world, using the help of a local hacker and Bitcoin to create a huge influx of revenue for him and his friends.

Famuyiwa attempts to do the same thing to African-Americans that John Hughes did with the middle class high school population in the 1980's, which is cut through the stereotypes, the incredulous romances, and what adults perceive teenagers to be like to really get to the heart of them as people. People with choices and decisions to make that are often times as big or as impacting as the ones adults make. The difference is, however, adults come equipped with life experiences where teenagers generally come equipped with their own instincts and peer pressure in their decision-making.

"Dope" shows the constant struggles of being a moral teenager engulfed in a society driven by illegal behavior and surrounded by peers who are nudging you onto a more dangerous pathway than on which you'd like to travel. The fact that it pays homage to the music and the urban movies of the 1990's is interesting because "Dope" doesn't focus on an anti-hero in a gritty neighborhood, much like the films of that era did. Instead, adhering to the principles of Hughes, it turns to the geek and, in turn, humanizes and paints him as a character trying to find himself in the mix of all this madness.

Famuyiwa and cinematographer Rachel Morrison crossbreed the early 1990's hip-hop culture with the contemporary technology of the mid-2010's, causing a culture shock of epic proportions in "Dope"'s aesthetic variety. "Dope" has the cinematic look of acid-washed jeans, the feel of a sun-soaked day at the beach, and the smells of everything from acne cream, sunscreen, and marijuana ostensibly infused into every scene. It's the kind of aesthetic that's so detail-centric it almost channels the likes of Wes Anderson, minus the meticulous symmetry in every scene.

Shameik Moore must be given considerable praise for his role here, which can only be described as a breakout performance. His human characteristics, carefully painted by Famuyiwa, his conflicted personalities, and his subtle arrogance, all traits that, in the end, make him very likable, echo the sentiments of Cuba Gooding, Jr. in "Boyz 'N The Hood," another conflicted soul caught in between being moral in a morally bankrupt area or taking the easy way out. Alongside Revolori and Clemons, two supporting roles that, again, go far and beyond the call of supporting roles, Moore is a talented who you find yourself being unable to take your eyes off of throughout the entire film.

Above all the aesthetic and character charm, "Dope" is a surprisingly optimistic film. It doesn't get bogged down by environmental cynicism, even when Malcolm has to turn into the kind of people he never wanted to associate himself with. Famuyiwa takes a brave step in the opposite direction of his peers, capturing acts like drug-dealing and backhanded deals in a light that accentuates joy and positivity, but it's all this that make "Dope" an even more fascinating character study, coming of age story, and a subversive tale about life in an urban area.

If you watch a lot of films, you develop an instinct for what is happening behind the camera. Some films -- heck, most films -- are all about the money, the box office, the payoff.

Not so with auteur Rick Famuyiwa's DOPE. Running at an overlong 1:45, you sense that money might have been the last thing on this writer/director's mind when he crafted the script; created some of the most endearing characters in modern film; carefully snuck into the dialog his puns, life lessons and bon mots; extracted top performances from his team; and ultimately created an experience that more "overwhelms" the viewer with images and ideas than "overpowers."

I liked it. I really liked it. But I go out of my way to catch films that most mainstream viewers don't, because film as a medium fascinates me.

The other IMDb members have done some great reviews and I don't want to repeat what has been said.

I do want to add this: technically the film is almost perfect. There is nothing obviously wrong with any scene, trope, performance ... it all works. And passion? There is tons of passion, nicely hidden in the script, obvious only in the way the film alternates back and forth between fast noisy action, and contemplative self-absorbed scenes of the type you would be more likely to find in a Woody Allen picture. Even with voice-over.

It has everything but pacing -- and that is the critical flaw. Famuyiwa tried so hard to cram so much into DOPE that the film lacks internal rhythm. By the very end, the viewer, while appreciative of the characters and the story, is pretty much lost.

One hopes that in his next project Famuyiwa will pay more attention to the viewers and less to his own "bucket list" of things he wants to cram into the story.

In that way, what starts as merely good ... could be great.