Gire: 'Dope' deals in smart comic action
"Dope" is one dope movie about dope being chased by dopes.
It's partly a Guy Ritchie-style crime tale, partly a "Risky Business" high school capitalism lesson, partly a John Hughes buddy film and one big, hip-hopped-up celebration of urban survival skills and both forms of smarts: book and street.
Talk about student activities. Straight-A high school senior Malcolm (Shameik Moore) has the bases covered: SAT, drugs, college apps, sex, job interviews, shootings, car chases and Dark Web enterprises.
Malcolm and his two besties - Jib (Tony Revolori) and Diggy (Kiersey Clemons) - live in predominantly black Inglewood in California, but they bond over "white stuff" like good grades, 1990s hip-hop entertainment, BMX biking and New Balance shoes. (That last one isn't in the movie, but I read it in Christian Lander's book, "Stuff White People Like").
Malcolm, Jib and Diggy really run against the grain of their Inglewood society when they form a band, Oreo, that isn't remotely rappy.
So, they take their share of abuse at school from the culture bullies.
As it turns out, that's just training for what happens later, when Malcolm meets handsome drug dealer Dom (A$AP Rocky), who enlists Malcolm as his proxy to woo Nakia (Zoe Kravitz), a knockout who beguiles Dom's messenger.
The plot lurches into third gear at Dom's birthday party later that night when a soured drug deal erupts into a fatal shootout.
Malcolm bravely risks his life and escorts Nakia to safety. For his efforts, someone crams $100,000 worth of drugs into his backpack without his knowledge.
Next, somebody in a red El Camino calls. He wants the drugs. Then, an imprisoned Dom calls. He wants the drugs, too. What to do?
Meanwhile, poor Malcolm tries to get an academic interview to secure his future at the university of his choice, Harvard, no less. If only he could be inspired to write that personal essay on time.
The fast and furiously paced "Dope" speeds by on snappy dialogue (a feisty exchange over who can say the N-word is a classic) and plenty of eye candy, not just the libidinous Lily (Chanel Iman) who forgoes clothing for long stretches, but also Scott Falconer's arrestingly colorful production designs, captured by Rachel Morrison's popping widescreen images.
Writer/director Rick Famuyiwa loads "Dope" with grandstanding visual devices that actually work, given the frenetic nature of his comic action film. He freezes frames, speeds up motion. He actually rewinds the movie to fill in a missing plot point for us.
Famuyiwa also falls back on a hackneyed voice-over narrator to supply the story's exposition. It's a lazy and unnecessary device here that could have easily been written out.
But that's a minor quibble in a liberating, full-throttle comedy not about the ethics of selling drugs, but about the ability of one smart black kid to do the math, and reconfigure "Dope" into a slippery slope of hope.
“Dope”
★ ★ ★
Starring: Shameik Moore, Tony Revolori, Kiersey Clemons, Zoe Kravitz, Kimberly Elise
Directed by: Rick Famuyiwa
Other: An Open Road Films release. Rated R for drug use, language, nudity, sexual situations and violence. 105 minutes