Director: Rick Famuyiwa
Starring: Shameik Moore, Tony Revolori, Kiersey Clemons, Zoe Kravitz, A$AP Rocky, Roger Guenveur Smith
Certificate: 15
Running time: 103 minutes
Every so often a film comes along that shakes up ‘the norm’, is slick and sleek, and lets the good guys win in fabulous style. Dope, directed by Rick Famuyiwa (Our Family Wedding, Talk To Me) and produced by Forest Whitaker, is that film.
Meet Malcolm (Moore), Jib (Revolori) and Diggy (Clemons) – three BMX-riding, 90s hip hop-loving best friends, living in ‘The Bottoms’, Inglewood, LA. Fine with staying under the radar and spending their time practicing in their punk rock bank, the trio are generally content with their lives in the suburbs, with their biggest obstacle trying to avoid the school bullies.
Everything changes when local drug dealer Dom (A$AP Rocky) approaches Malcolm to act as the middleman between himself and cool girl Nakia (Kravitz). After agreeing to the deal, Malcolm manages to wrangle three tickets to Dom’s birthday party at a popular club, despite being underage. Once inside, Malcolm gets an unexpected insight into Dom’s shady lifestyle (a drug deal between two gangs) and the consequences when things go wrong (a shootout inside the club). After escaping the mayhem, Malcolm and co. discover that before being arrested, Dom smuggled A LOT of ‘molly’ and a gun into M’s backpack, leaving him in a sticky predicament – should he hand the stash in, or find out who it’s to be delivered to? The film follows the three as they weave into and out of problem after problem, bumping into an array of peculiar characters along the way.
Full of colour and humour, Dope is an enjoyable trip around LA’s backstreets, with Moore, Revolori and Clemons bringing the chemistry and jokes. While Malcolm is being straddled by a half-naked, mollied-up Lily (supermodel Chanel Iman), Jib and Diggy are busy ordering chili cheese fries and trying to avoid being shot at – it’s that kind of film. Packed full of familiar faces and rising stars, Dope shows that you don’t have to get too silly and patronizing to be cool.
With a soundtrack curated by Pharrell Williams, and featuring some of the biggest hip hop records from the 1990s, Dope is one of the smartest, lightest, quickest films to be released in 2015. Whether you’re a fan of the music, the ‘scene’, the genre or the character tropes, don’t miss out on this coming-of-age tale.
Dope is available now on digital HD and is released on DVD from Monday 4th January 2016.
