Dope

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

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.

The trailer was a great visual feast but it doesn't show the scale of the movie and how excellent it is. 3 kids from Inglewood, CA, a town we're usually not asked to care about, have to wise up about drug dealing. I actively tried to find a bad performance, and I couldn't find a single one. Unlike many other "black" films, this one has comedic elements and tries to get you to laugh using memes and potty humor. Typically, this would carry a negative connotation, but in the case of this movie it is excellently executed and the pace is so quick that you don't even care how juvenile it is. I encourage everyone to watch this movie when it releases in June, specifically on the 19th. I'm sure it won't have the story it did at Sundance, however. Open Road may change a few elements of the story, which would be a shame. I'm giving this one a 9/10, just in case the movie isn't as good as it once was at Sundance, so bear that in mind.

"Dope" is not the movie that you probably expect when hearing the title. I want to stress that. The word itself has negative connotations (with most thinking immediately of drugs when they hear it), and though it certainly deals with things of that sort, it isn't really that simple. The few definitions of the word are addressed at the beginning of the film, most notably as a slang term referring to something that is "very good". This definition, my favorite of the few, seems to capture the movie in the best light.

Essentially, this is a coming-of-age picture. Our main character is Malcolm, a high-school senior who's obsessed with 90s hip-hop culture, and who constantly shows this affection by emulating the fashion and language of the time. He's a straight-A student with perfect SAT scores and seems to have everything under control - despite a few bullies - until he finds himself taking a chance invitation to a drug dealer's birthday party along with his two best friends. From there, he's taken on a crazy adventure littered with bad choice after bad choice, all the while juggling college applications and interviews that will surely determine his future.

Writer/Director Rick Famuyiwa strips the film of any tired clichés or stereotypes for African-American characters, and surprisingly manages to infuse details that question the issues of racism and class discrimination. But above all, he makes a really fun movie. The writing is sharp and humorous, with the acting from the main trio - Shameik Moore, Tony Revolori, and Kiersey Clemons - complimenting it excellently. And though it's undoubtedly rough around the edges, its wit and ceaseless energy make it irresistible.