Dope is something of an exquisitely stated thesis with the outer shell of a "drug deal gone bad" movie understated by the culture within where this rather typical (for the area and in the movies) excursion occurs. There is an angle that feels like the drug plot in
Dope is necessary to make the movie feel more exciting, but that it actually makes this unique take on black culture all the more generic. Director and writer Rick Famuyiwa (
The Wood) smartly uses both of these preconceptions to his advantage by allowing the regularity of a drug deal and the race and culture typically related to such going-ons to highlight the point he is intending to make. The main ideas here are simple: to not sell yourself short and to not settle for what's expected of you; seemingly talking as much about one's predestination due to their inherent preferences as he is the color of their skin. That Famuyiwa is able to somewhat blur this line of not simply defining people by their baseball stats, but for the character they display is what he really wants to explore which he does magnificently by cultivating the affinity we all have for nostalgia to display how we tend to believe it was somehow better in someone else's time despite us really knowing the reality was never as pleasant as the high points in pictures paint. There is a whole treasure trove of ideas and concepts within
Dope and some are more highlighted than necessarily explored, but Famuyiwa does a solid job of capturing the essence of what is necessary to get his point across here. This essence is as present in the musical stylings chosen to power the movie along as it is the slang verbiage and dated styles that Malcolm (Shameik Moore) and his co-horts rock throughout.
Dope is certainly nothing short of an independent-minded take on a subculture that is more than under served, but as a movie it somewhat lacks that definitive spark that actually sets it apart as something exceptional. There is something muddled and incoherent about the way it chooses to lay out its ideas which is odd because I rather enjoyed the freewheeling editing choices, but walking out and considering what I'd taken away from the film it came down more to the broad strokes than the brass tacks when it would seem Malcolm's genius is in the details.
