mollrat101 Review of Dope

Dope (2015)

A fun, engaging coming-of-age flick, but the moral is a little too muddled for me

[7/10 · 24 June 2015]

I'm going to be honest I wanted to watch this film because I was excited about seeing a teen film that didn't just have the typical white, male protagonist. What I saw was really engaging film featuring a likable and sympathetic protagonist, played wonderfully by Shameik Moore, who reluctantly goes on the dangerous path his environment has always encouraged him to go on. The film had wonderful music and great performances particularly our three leads. Zoe Kravitz is also good as Moore's love interest, in fact I wish she was in the movie a little more. Famuyiwa does a great job of giving us a taste of Malcolm's environment and the neighborhood feels like an essential character. The movie makes light of a lot of the violence that happens (which can be a problem) but in my opinion the best scene is toward the end. After all the work Malcolm has to go through to get the money that he earned from selling drugs, he is confronted again by his school bullies and one of them takes his bag that contains the cash. Malcolm threatens them with a gun and pleads with them to give it back. The look on his face was powerful. This is the closest Malcolm ever comes to completely losing himself to this job and he knows it. But the narrative is also brilliant because it doesn't condemn him for doing that. It feels more like it's telling him he did what he had to do to keep what he earned. That's basically what most of the movie has been about: people constantly testing him to fight for his dignity. Malcolm has been content for so long to letting people step on him and his environment dictates that violence is how you achieve respect. I feel like this scene loses its meaning somewhat because the bully now decides he respects Malcom after he POINTED A GUN AT HIM. And Malcolm is okay with that?! I'm convinced this is not who Malcolm is but this starts to explain some of my problems with this movie. First problem, the moral "Dope" feels mixed to me. When Malcolm is trying to get rid of the drugs, he has to stop his journey to attend his Harvard college interview. He finds out that his interviewer is none other than the person Dom (the guy who planted the drugs on him) wants him to give the drugs too. Austin Jacoby (A.J.), played by Roger Guenveur Smith, refuses to take the drugs and tells Malcolm that because the delivery wasn't right it is now Malcolm's responsibility to get rid of it. And he threatens him and his loved ones in order to force him. Malcolm seeks help from an old friend Will in order to sell the drugs and not get caught. Using his ingenuity, Malcolm manages to sell all the drugs through the help of his friends and receive his profits without being detected. He meets Jacoby again and he reveals that he blackmailed him to not telling on Malcolm or his friends by tying the account he made to sell into Jacoby's personal accounts. Essentially Malcolm now has a guaranteed admission into Harvard through the use of blackmail. Um...what? We focus on Malcolm's admission essay. He states his reasons he should be accepted and then ends with asking if he were white would people even be asking why he wants to go to Harvard. That's a fair point but again the Jacoby thing makes this message look weaker to me. A white kid using his connections to get into Harvard is a privilege that Malcolm doesn't have but he evens the playing field through blackmail. Does that make it right? Is racism a justification for this? I'm not sure and the narrative doesn't give us an answer. Plus it also begs the question could Malcolm have gotten to Harvard through his own merit. We won't know now. I bring this up because I feel like "Dope" is supposed to send a positive message about achieving your dreams no matter your background but if Malcolm accomplishes this in such an unethical way is that still a hopeful message? I think it is supposed to be and that's where "Dope" loses me especially Malcolm is presented as a moral good character. I just wonder whether that could've been reworked. Some minor things: the n-word was said to death, that stupid debate about white people's chance to say the n-word (I get that they're idiots like this but the debate lasted way to long), the narration by Forrest Whittaker I didn't care much for (I wish Malcolm had said this stuff or didn't tell us at all, that small scene revealing Diggy's sexuality felt so pointless (Why did they have to narrate it? Just let it come up naturally in conversation. They act like they have to clear the air about it which makes it feel like a big deal even if the narrative claims otherwise) and I liked the fact that they tried to present this rough neighborhood in a more comedic fashion but sometimes it just made the tone of the film feel uneven (and some of just wasn't funny; like a horrible scene of a child being murdered in the beginning and making a joke with the blood splattered Gameboy). Despite the numerous problems I had, I had a lot of fun watching this film but I think it's good if people just take some of the messages the film offers. The comedic chemistry between the three leads was wonderful and there was some decent romantic chemistry between Moore and Kravitz. It's worth checking out for the likable and sympathetic characters, the great music, a few laughs and a mostly hopeful message.