I heard great things about Rick Famuywia’s Dope since Summer of 2015 when it came
out at Sundance Film festival. And after I sat down to watch the DVD on the
laptop last week, I’d have to say all the praise this film got from critics and
viewers alike is well deserved. Dope is one of the best films of 2015 and
possibly the best film Rick Famuywia’s career.
Dope follows
Malcolm, a geek who’s into late 1980s and 1990’s old school rap and late 1980s
and 1980s fashion as he and his geek friends Jib and Diggie navigate life in
The Bottoms of Englewood California. While they attend school and pursue their
hobbies like Manga and a band they formed, have to overcome an obstacle course
of thugs, gangstas and dope dealers who bully them for acting “White”. As they
work towards getting good grades and graduating high school, Malcom aspires to
go to Harvard and escape the poverty of The Bottoms of Englewood.
After a meeting with his guidance counselor, Malcolm is told
that his admission essay on Ice Cube’s A
Good Day isn’t good enough to get him into Harvard. That his deconstruction
of the song isn’t unique or shows anything distinct about him or his life
experience, the things that’ll leave a powerful first impression on Harvard’s
admission board. With that said, his counselor tells him he has a scheduled
meeting with Harvard Alumni Austin Jacoby, the CEO of a check cashing company. On
the way home to prepare for his meeting, he runs into Dom, a dope dealer who
invites him to his birthday party. What happens after Malcolm goes to that
party begins a journey that will truly show what makes Malcolm unique as he has
to use his creativity, resourcefulness and critical thinking skills to figure
out a complex series of puzzles revolving around what he finds in his backpack.
The solution to that puzzle could be his rise to the top or a slippery slope
downhill that could destroy him. I won’t give away that solution; this movie is
TOO GOOD TO SPOIL.
Dope is a
well-crafted film that tells the story of a great American Novel on film.
Stylistically it reminds me of classic White teen comedies like Fast Times at Ridgemont High, The
Breakfast Club, The last American
Virgin, and Clueless, but tells a story from an African-American
perspective. In between the comedy and drama is a balanced and humanized story
of a boy’s journey into manhood filled with the layers, depth, and complexity.
Dope is an addictive film that will have you eager to watch more of it again and
again to catch all the little details and nuances you missed the last time.
I believe Dope is
the kind of film people will be talking about for years, the twists and turns
in this movie will really make you think. Watching Malcolm deal with the challenges
in his quest to write the essay that he believes will get him to Harvard
reminded me of the late 1990’s film Fresh,
where the Sean Nelson character had to use chesslike strategies to overcome the
obstacles in front of him and the enemies around him. As Malcom encounters each
person in his personal journey they seem like players on the chessboard. Rooks,
Queens, Knights, Kings and pawns. And the as the geeky Malcolm gets to know
them he learns how to use each player to his advantage to get him towards the
king and the eventual checkmate. When he checkmates the final challenger in the
film (HUGE PLOT TWIST) the viewer starts to understand that the game of life is
chess, not checkers.
Being a comic book geek and a straight A student back in the
day in I could relate to a lot of what Malcolm and his friends went through in
this movie. I ran into a lot of the same kinds of situations Malcolm ran into
dealing with bullies who ridiculed me for liking comic books, video games and
superheroes. And like Malcolm I had to find another way to overcome those
challenges in my efforts to get out of the hell known as high school in New
York City. I know from experience that every day in High school with dope boys
and thugs is just survival and you just live to get through a day. But the only
way to get to the last day of high school, Graduation Day requires critical
thinking and the ability to plan a long-term strategy.
Director Rick Famuyiwa does a spectacular job on Dope of
presenting a unique picture of African-American life. His camera work and unique
visuals tell a story we rarely get to see, a story of the good kids who get
caught in the middle of the world of dope dealers, thugs, gangs, and police
officers in the inner city. It’s a story that rarely ever gets told about Black
life, and as a kid who grew up living that life I can honestly say he captured
the spirit of a life experience I knew growing up in the South Bronx.
I’d love to see more films telling stories like this about
Black life, it’s these kinds of films that show what’s special and unique about
Black life and Black culture. Watching Rick Famuywia’s Dope made me think about what I was trying to do with Spinsterella
last year, tell a story about a part of Black culture we rarely hear in
mainstream media. I believe we need more stories about Black Geeks, Black
Goths, and Black people from different walks of life to put the shades and
textures on Black culture that will show the world that there’s more than one
Black experience.
Dope is a GREAT
movie. It’s must-see viewing I highly recommend everyone picks up and adds to
their Black cinema collection.
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