Dope

Poor Malcolm seems like he should have been born in a different place and a different skin.  He and his two best friends Jib and Diggy live in Bottoms the worst part of Los Angeles’s Inglewood where most of the population are either poor African/American or Latino.  They however are fixated on BMX biking, classic ‘90s hip-hop culture, getting good grades at school, playing in their own punk band, and being all-round geeks: all activities that everyone else in their rough neighborhood consider as the traits that belong to just white people.

It makes going to school somewhat haphazard as every day they get picked on for looking so ‘weird’. One of their tormentors is Dom who insists that Malcolm acts a go-between with Nakia the object of his affection who has been giving him short-change, as he thinks she may just respond more positively if someone as innocent looking as Malcolm was his messenger.  He’s right she does, but the problem is that she and Malcolm also take a shine to each other instead.

They both get invited to Dom’s birthday bash at a Club that night and when the backroom drug deal that is going down turns into a gun battle between rival gangs, Malcolm quickly ushers Nakia to safety.  What he doesn’t know is that just before he escapes, Dom has stuck a big stash of Ecstasy tablets into his backpack.

Next morning Dom is behind bars and Malcolm wakes up to the fact that he is now in possession of drugs that various desperate groups of armed thugs are anxious to retrieve claiming that they in fact are the rightful owners.  As this is all going down and Malcolm and his mates are being hotly pursued when in fact he should be making tracks to an interview that will all but guarantee him a place at Harvard. He is now however in danger of losing everything: drugs, a college education, and in another comic twist of fate, maybe his virginity at long last.

This wonderful fast and furious teenage caper opens with these big laugh-out loud moments from its very first frame and never once eases up.  Like a wonderful breath of fresh air it beautifully captures the vital energy of a whole new generation of street-wise urban kids who incorporate all the tools of social media when they become very reluctant drug dealers. Writer/director Rick Famuyiwa gathered together a relatively unknown multi-colored cast of actors, rappers, dancers and models to give us this compelling glimpse of an edgier underground online life that most of us are unaware even exists and a slice of life of a neighborhood that we would probably never visit. An important element too of this tale is the really stunning soundtrack, which includes the two tracks that Malcolm’s punk group allegedly wrote.

Despite its brush with drugs and crime this very tongue-in-cheek drama is one of the most exhilarating feel-good comedies that has burst out of Sundance for years and is destined to be a major crossover hit with both mainstream and indie audiences.  Especially ones that love some politically incorrect humor too.