Dope (2015)

Genres

Comedy, Crime, Drama

Director

Rick Famuyima

Country

USA

Cast

Shameik Moore, Tony Revolori, Kiersey Clemons, Kimberly Elise, Chanel Iman, Blake Anderson, Zoe Kravitz, A$AP Rocky, Keith Stanfield, Rick Fox, Amin Joseph, Tyga, Roger Guenveur Smith, De0aundre Bonds, Quincy Brown, Forest Whitaker

Storyline

The life of Malcolm (Shameik Moore), a greek who's surviving life in a tough neighbourhood, changes after a chance invitation to an underground party that involves him and his friends in a drug trade. 

Opinion

The word dope has several meanings, as the movie also points out, one of them is cool, awesome, and that's exactly how I imagined Dope to be. The poster pointed in that direction, just like the beginning of the movie. But then development happened.

I watched this knowing absolutely nothing about it, but I could immediately relate to the character of Malcolm, not because I'm a geek who loves the 90's - although I'm quite a geek - but because he essentially is a fish out of the water, just like me. Also, he has quite a unique personality which made him a very interesting character to follow. Then his geek friends are introduced and I got the feeling this was going to be a film exploring these unique characters and their relationship. I was really looking forward to that but then they get involved in a drug trade, and I kind of lost my interest. 

Overall it was a quite refreshing coming-of-age story, but the problem is that after the drug trade is introduced, the film doesn't seem to be able to find a focus. It talks a little bit of this, a little bit of that, but doesn't explore any of its topics as good as it could/should have. Sure, it addresses the issue of racial stereotypes ad the negative consequences that come with that, and it also says how important it is to be yourself and stay true to who you are, but, I don't know, something was missing. 

On the other hand, there are some good performances, especially from Shameik Moore. He does a really good job at portraying Malcolm, and he is so charismatic, he managed to keep me watching until the end.