‘Dope’ is Far From Dope, But Not Quite Wack (FILM REVIEW)

[rating=6.00]

There’s a great movie somewhere in Dope—Rick Famuyiwa’s latest exploration of African-American life in the United States and critical darling of this year’s Sundance Film Festival—and as much as I want to judge it as the great film it nearly is, I’m forced to look only at what I’ve been given. Unfortunately, what I’ve been given is a decent movie with tints of greatness spread throughout, which is truly a disappointment. As much as I tried to love this coming of age dramedy—and to be sure, I loved quite a bit of it—its flaws were glaring and hard to overlook.

The most glaring flaw in Dope is one of focus. We’re given a relatively simple, straightforward story: Malcolm (Shameik Moore) is a young black male living in Inglewood, doing his best to make it through his senior year of high school. He is a self-described geek; obsessed with 90’s hip hop and fashion, he has little interest in the trappings of his existence and doesn’t quite fit in. He aspires to attend Harvard and wants nothing more than to make something of himself. This gets derailed when, thanks to a series of unfortunate events, he finds himself accidentally in possession of multiple kilos of the drug Molly and is strong-armed into selling it by a cutthroat, top level dealer.

What seems like a fairly uncomplicated, A to B story becomes needlessly convoluted as the film plays out. This is a film that would have benefited greatly under the knife of a ruthless editor in both script and final form. We are sidetracked by subplots that lack substance, side characters that make little sense, and plot twists that are genuinely eye-rolling (that’s who your drug boss is? really?!). Structurally, the film takes shortcuts that ripped me out of the experience. The opening narration tells us things that we’re literally seeing, almost as if the film was not confident enough to let its imagery speak for itself (which it absolutely does). Instead of showing us the wild party scene as it happens, we jump cut to the next day, where we witness the party secondhand through social media updates and YouTube uploads. And don’t even get me started on the Ocean’s 11-esque exposition that wraps up the climactic conclusion.

And yet, despite all of these things, it’s difficult to deny the innate charm of Dope. Harder still to deny the greatness of its peaks. The film’s high points come mostly from the strength of its cast. Moore is a fine young actor who plays the role of Malcolm with vulnerability and grace. His performance is bolstered by his immediate support, Malcolm’s friends Jib and Diggy (Tony Revolori and Kiersey Clemons). Never does this trio descend into caricature or parody, which is a testament to Famuyiwa’s strength as a writer. He crafts his main characters with love and care, proving his ability to express himself through character and story.

There’s also much to be said about the overall point of the story. It’s rare for a film released in the depths of the summer movie season to have a point (indeed, this film feels better suited for the late-September crowd) but Dope doesn’t shy away from making one. It adds depth to the discussion of race and expectation in modern America, forcing the audience to not only like but to relate to Malcolm in a visceral way. Malcolm defies the stereotypes we’ve grown accustom to in media, and yet his life is, in many ways, dictated by them. A school counselor calls him arrogant for wanting to go to Harvard; his peers belittle him because he’s into “white things”; he’s a straight A student with near perfect SAT scores and yet he’s forced to prove himself harder in order to achieve his goals.

It’s the sort of dichotomy that white America refuses to acknowledge, and Dope presents it as plain as day without lowering itself by preaching. It showcases the slippery slope a kid from Inglewood must walk in order to be truly successful in this world. As relatable as Malcolm is, the world in which he lives is wholly unlike the relative safety of the suburban dwellings many of us came up in. The situations he faces are somehow both foreign and familiar, showcasing not only the differences but the similarities between the worlds of the comfortable white suburban kid and the wary ghetto youth.

Still, I couldn’t shake the feeling that Dope is a movie that never could quite figure out what it wanted to be. With a running time of about an hour and fifty minutes, it wanders and rambles too often to become the fantastic movie it very nearly is. There’s a bit too much fat in this meal, which could be a turnoff for some. It would have benefited greatly with a runtime closer to 80 or 90 minutes, tightening the narrative just a bit. It’s not a bad movie by any stretch of the imagination, but with a little bit of focus it could have been a great one.

Dope is in theaters now.