Written and Directed by Rick Famuyiwa
***1/2 (three and a half stars)
RATED R
Let's hear it for the originals!!!
Throughout the month of June, I have so far been able to miraculously avoid all manner of sequels, prequels, remakes, re-boot, and re-imaginings and happily so. Yes, I was more than pleased with Writer/Director Joss Whedon's "Avengers: Age Of Ultron" and Writer/Director George Miller's "Mad Max: Fury Road" is indeed one of the most visionary films I have seen this year. But that being said, the presence of a filmmaker's unique, personal stamp, the attempt at trying to mine new artistic territory and create something we have not quite seen before has been sadly scant.
If you are a regular visitor to this blogsite, you know that none of what I have just written is remotely unfamiliar to you but believe me, I would rather see a flawed original film like Writer/Director Cameron Crowe's "Aloha" ten times over than sit through more and more yawn inducing sequels. So, it is with great pleasure that I am now able to turn your attention to the enormously original and completely entertaining "Dope," the latest film from Writer/Director Rick Famuyiwa, who co-wrote Director Kasi Lemmons' excellent "Talk To Me" (2007) as well as wrote and directed the acclaimed hip-hop influenced romantic comedy "Brown Sugar" (2002). With Famuyiwa orchestrating a cinematic party where the hip-hop beats comes as loud and as fast as the one-liners, the social satire and even the bullets, "Dope" showcases its big brain and equally sized heart from beginning to end.
"Dope" stars Shameik Moore in his terrific feature film debut as Malcolm Adekanbi, a high school senior who lives with his single Mother, Lisa (Kimberly Elise) in the most desperate section of Inglewood, California known as "The Bottoms." Malcolm exists as an anomaly in his neighborhood as he is a straight A student with aspirations of attending Harvard University, is obsessed with '90s hip-hop music, sports an outdated high top fade a la Kid N' Play as hairstyle and fronts a punk rock band called "Awreeoh" (pronounced "Oreo") with his two best friends, Jib (played by Tony Revolori last seen in 2014's "The Grand Budapest Hotel") and Diggy (played by Kiersey Clemons), a drummer and lesbian who is defiantly adorned with an androgynous appearance.
Malcolm and his friends are self-professed "geeks" who survive their day-today lives in South Central Los Angeles as best as they are able, whether evading school bullies determined to steal their gym shoes or from surprising outbursts of gangland violence. On one such occasion, as the threesome are attempting to evade a group of dope dealers, Malcolm unexpectedly formulates a tentative friendship with drug dealer Dom (played by A$AP Rocky), as they bond over shared hip-hop knowledge. This fateful meeting soon introduces Malcolm to Nakia (a warmly alluring Zoe Kravitz), with whom he is immediately attracted towards, as well as gains him and his friends an invitation to a nightclub for Dom's birthday party.
Malcolm's life takes a turn towards the dangerously extreme as a rival gang blazes into the nightclub spraying bullets and causing overall panic. During the melee, Dom stuffs his gun and drug supply (known as "Molly") into Malcolm's back pack and completely unbeknownst to Malcolm. Once Malcolm discovers the illicit substances the following day, he and his friends are thrown into a wild adventure during which they attempt to rid themselves of the drugs, and involves aspiring rappers, murderous drug dealers, a duplicitous college admissions director, an official Awreeoh punk rock concert that goes viral, heart-to-heart teen confessionals, GED and SAT exams, internet drug deal sales via BITcoin transactions and even a potential date to the prom for Malcolm.
What Rick Famuyiwa has so smartly achieved with "Dope" is to slyly merge the coming-of-age teen film, a screwball comedy of errors, a caper comedy, a celebration of hip-hop's golden age (while being a lament for its present) as well as a provocative exploration of racial identity and perceptions into a fast paced, exceedingly well acted and razor sharply written and directed escapade that makes for perfect summertime movie-going. While I stated that "Dope" is a completely original motion picture, it does indeed house certain elements that will be familiar. The good student walking along the dark side concept is straight out of Writer/Director Paul Brickman's teen classic "Risky Business" (1983) and the inner city hijinks and the many chases our heroes embark from all manner of bullies and villains recall the likes of Director Michael Schultz's "Cooley High" (1975), Director Chris Columbus' "Adventures In Babysitting" (1987) and Writer/Director Reginald Hudlin's "House Party" (1990).
Furthermore, I would say that even the influence and spirit of John Hughes sprinkles some cinematic stardust over the proceedings. First of all, there is the generous camaraderie exhibited between the characters of Malcolm, Jib and Diggy, much like Hughes' geek characters from both "Sixteen Candles" (1984) and "Weird Science" (1985) and even to an extent, the sincere warmth that bound our truant triumvirate from "Ferris Bueller's Day Off' (1986), More specifically, I loved one quiet scene between Malcolm and Nakia, which which felt like an obvious echo to the classic auto shop/car scene between Samantha and The Geek in "Sixteen Candles." And then, there is the character of the androgynous drummer Diggy, which to me clearly felt like a nod to the character of Watts, the androgynous drummer in Hughes and Director Howard Deutch's "Some Kind Of Wonderful" (1987).
Instead of utilizing these elements in a copycat fashion, Famuyiwa has taken the familiar, spun everything around on their collective heads and filtered them through the lens of racial identity, therefore ensuring that "Dope" stands firmly on its own cinematic feet, while also functioning as a terrific companion piece to Writer/Director Justin Simien's stinging satire "Dear White People" (2014).
For all of the outrageousness in the film, "Dope" houses a deeply serious core that certainly fuels the comedy, as well as the characters, thus grounding the film in a sun soaked yet harsh reality by keeping the level of inner city pain and real world violence at its nerve endings. Beyond that, Famuyiwa consistently plays with our perceptions and prejudices of who we, and the characters, believe other character should or should not be based upon race and location, surprising us over and again.
In addition to Diggy's androgyny and Jib's assertion that he is indeed "14% African" based upon his discoveries on Ancestry.com, I loved an early sequence set during Dom's nightclub birthday party as he and his drug dealing partners engage in a brief philosophical debate about the concept of "slippery slopes." And then, there is also the character of college admission director Austin Jacoby (played by the excellent Roger Guenveur Smith, a Spike Lee joint veteran), a sharp dressed, eloquent businessman who houses a much more sinister agenda and persona.
Even sharper is a character who emerges once our heroes embark upon trying to figure out how to sell Dom's drugs and deciding that if anyone was to really know about street drugs it would be the White kids who purchase them. So, the trio reacquaint themselves with a white stoner/computer hacker they once met at band camp named Will Sherwood (played engagingly by Blake Anderson), and their debates about Black culture and who does or does not have the right to say the dreaded "N word" are as hilarious as they are enlightening.
But "Dope," first and foremost belongs to our hero Malcolm Adekanbi and the larger concepts of what it means to be an African American male in 2015. As with films like the aforementioned "Dear White People" plus Spike Lee's "School Daze" (1988) and "Passing Strange" (2008), "Dope" really touched a nerve with me regarding my own sense of identity, self-perception as well as the perceptions others have of me as a Black man who happens to live and work within a predominantly White community.
I could thoroughly relate to a character like Malcolm, especially my adolescent self, in regards to how others (both White, and in my case, especially Black) perceived me based upon my education, my likes, dislikes, skills (or lack thereof) to how I dressed and spoke. Yet, what Malcolm possesses that I did not was a powerful sense of self-awareness that was unapologetic. In fact, the songs his band Awereeoh perform in the film (and all written by Pharrell Williams), which carry titles like "Can't Bring Me Down," "Don't Get Deleted" and "It's My Turn Now," all serve as nothing less than vigorous suits of armor to an outer world that will always questions figures like Malcolm and his his friends.
Even so, waving the flag of individuality in any circumstance bears a heavy weight to burden. But for Malcolm in the Black community, it does carry a particularly large burden. In an early scene, Malcolm is admonished by his high school guidance counselor (played by Bruce Bailey) and branded as "arrogant" because he has written a deconstruction of Ice Cube's "It Was A Good Day" as his college admissions essay. Malcolm counters by exclaiming that while "I'm from a poor, crime filled neighborhood, raised by a single Mother, don't know my Dad, blah blah...," to present himself as existing within only those parameters results in being nothing more than a ghetto cliche. He wants to transcend his world by not becoming yet another "ghetto cliche." Once those drugs and that gun end up in Malcolm's back pack and his adventure begins, "Dope" chronicles a very smart, dangerous and challenging existential journey for him to travel.
Will Malcolm remain true to himself or will he fall into becoming yet another version of the same ghetto stereotypes that have permeated American culture, stereotypes that Malcolm is precisely conscious of. Rick Famuyiwa wisely has Malcolm confront his own insecurities, prejudices, and failings over the course of the film and by the time he indeed writes another college admissions essay, he is able to weave his new experiences into an even deeper and more pointed social message that would ultimately force anyone to truly re-think their perceptions of the qualities that constitute who Black and White people are and can actually be.
Rick Famuyiwa's "Dope" is a slick, summer joyride but one that sticks to the cinematic ribs vibrantly by being fueled with terrific performances, high energy and a collective of characters you do not wish to leave behind once the end credits appear. Trust me, dear readers, please do seek this film out. I know that I cannot stop you from seeing those dinosaurs wreak havoc over the multi-plexes again and again. But honestly, you and I have seen it all before and aren't you just hungry for something more unique?
If you are, then "Dope" will prove itself to be fully satiating.
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