The database of black nerds is still rather shallow, no? Gotcher Urkel. Donald Glover. Does Neil deGrasse Tyson count? I dunno. Let’s just say it’s refreshing to expand this pool.
It took me a bit to figure out Dope took place in current time. Our hero, Malcolm (Shameik Moore), is a throwback to the 90s, favoring the golden age of hip-hop, Air Jordans, too small BMX bikes, a shirt louder than your average car alarm and an elevated flat top a la Kid of Kid ‘n’ Play. Even the term “Dope” itself is *fresh* from 90s slang. Word.
Malcolm has Harvard dreams. Geez, even in black films, colleges are divided into “Harvard” and “other.” That trend has to go. Any time a film suggests that entry into, say, UCLA or Michigan somehow constitutes failure has literally insulted over 100 million Americans.
The rest of the set-up is really quite refreshing when you think about it – Malcolm is a senior in high school, but lacks a car and fears all social interaction outside of his band (Tony Revolori and Kiersey Clemons). When their path home through the worst neighborhoods L.A. has to offer is blocked by Bloods, these “kids” have to bike a side street where anything shy of a steroid-enhanced Lance Armstrong performance will literally lead to the loss of the bicycle. Malcolm gets caught by the local drug dealer Dom (Rakim Mayers), who makes him acts as mediary between he and, ironically, the girl of Malcolm’s dreams, Nakia (Zoë Kravitz). Nakia is hopelessly out of Malcolm’s league, but likes to toy with him
You know, you can dress a boy up, give him a good education and common sense and yet, when the girl flashes a smile, he’s still helpless. Nakia encourages Malcolm to attend Dom’s party and, naturally, he comes home with his bag containing four kilos of heroin and a handgun. Now why did Malcolm take his backpack to a nightclub? And why did he neither notice, nor check why his 
bag was suddenly much fuller before he went to school the next day? Who knows? But there’s a certain magic to the school security guard assuming the metal detector is broken rather than investigating Malcolm’s possessions. No, that isn’t realistic, either, but it does help the plot.
So, nerd kid and his nerd band being trailed by rival gang members have to figure out how to get the product from the newly incarcerated Dom to his Dom’s contact without attracting the police or any gang members. The solution is, dare-I-say, unique even if the clichés are not.
Dope lets Malcolm be a kid … and at times a very naïve kid. Often black characters seem like gross overcompensation – THE MAN thinks we’re all stupid, huh? We’ll just show him, won’t we? Dope seemed just as quick to suggest Malcolm’s intellectual and maturity flaws along with his gifts, which struck me as far closer to reality than the usual portrayal. Not sure this is ground-breaking work, but I’d give money to Rick Famuyiwa two dozen times sooner than Tyler Perry.
Trying to break out of his bubble
So young, he even lack stubble
The kid has dreams
And yet, it seems
This Malcolm is in the middle of trouble
Rated R, 103 Minutes
D: Rick Famuyiwa
W: Rick Famuyiwa
Genre: Boy N the Hood
Type of person most likely to enjoy this film: Non-Tyler Perry black film enthusiasts
Type of person least likely to enjoy this film: Racists
