Sydney Film Festival Review: Dope (spoilers)

Quincy Brown, Kiersey Clemons, Shameik Moore,
& Tony Revolori in Dope

In Dope, the lead, Malcolm (Shameik Moore) reminded me of Dwayne Wayne from 1980s Cosby Show-spinoff A Different World (the series starred Lisa Bonet, whose daughter Zoe Kravitz plays the romantic lead here) who got flack from his peers for being a dork and too smart for his own good.  He wore these funky eye glasses with sun lens fixtures always flipped up and moved to the beat of his own drum.  If you recall him, imagine it's the 2010s, and Dwayne attends high school in the most drug and violence-fueled area of South L.A., and he's trying to get into Harvard over Hillman. Malcolm is confident academically and comfortable enough in his skin that his black identity is not his primary descriptor. He certainly has African-American-related interests like "90s" hip hop, but what catches his interests are mostly mainstream.  He hangs around with equally nerdy friends, and if their band is any indication, it's not Dr. Dre that influences them musically, it's more Blink 182 (or their subsequent imitators if I'm dating myself). Malcolm is incredibly smart and capable, if a bit scared and understandably green.  He believes he deserves access to what everyone else does at his level of intelligence and ability but already have having been born in a much more privileged world than The Bottoms where Malcolm currently resides.  And why shouldn't he, he at one point asks?  Well, would anyone argue with him?  He seems to believe you want to pigeon hole him, however, and fetishize his ghetto roots. And he's screaming that he doesn't want to be defined by the color of his skin. He wants to be like everyone else thank-you-very-much.  But he just wants to go as far as his merits should take him--at whatever cost and whatever has to be sold.  So, as matters unfold, there is a strange lack of complicity on Malcolm's behalf that only stands out as he never actually addresses it (unless I missed it), being the thoughtful young man he is.  But, then, Malcolm is so clever, and drugs are always going exist, so the distance he puts between himself and how he could profit from the trade washes his hands clean.

Style-wise, writer/director Rick Famuyiwa (The Wood, Brown Sugar), gives us Boyz N the Hood filtered through Glee via Quentin Tarantino.  The first hour is a zany caper that throws Malcolm down an urban rabbit hole.  There are quite a few hilarious moments with an intoxicating energy that makes this film hard not to enjoy.  The performances are strong overall.  Tony Revolori (The Grand Budapest Hotel) plays one of Malcolm's sidekicks, along with the super sweet Kiersey Clemons.  Chanel Iman as a sexy rich girl with way too much time on her hands provides a good deal of the comic relief.  On the clunkier side of things, Roger Guenveur Smith and Kapg as unassociated villainous characters are oddly directed to deliver identical performances.  

But, then about halfway through, the plot gets more complicated and improbable which weighs down the eclectic personality it had worked so hard yet effortlessly to achieve (which is usually the case when a formula is followed).  The individual flair is sacrificed for expediency.  The movie overall is preoccupied with status and the resolution gets a little too preachy being a film bent on the idea that the best and highest aspiration one can have in life is to get accepted and attend Harvard University.  Not a bad goal, but kind of a generic one in a fantastical world that seems more symbolic than anything.  The protagonist here might accuse me of not lobbing these accusations against the movie if the protagonist were white. But, the answer actually is: yes, I would. But then if the lead character were white, this movie would have turned out to be Superbad.