Tuesday, July 28, 2015

Dope- Alt black movie?

Dope is the film I was waiting months for. I couldn't wait to see this movie about blerds who were into 90's hip hop. I keep reading blurbs and seeing song lists and felt like finally alt black film will have arrived.

Well, it kinda did.

The film takes place in present day Inglewood California. The first thing that caught me off guard was the use of the N word at nauseum. It could nearly be a period at the end of a sentence. Could have really done without it. I thought it would have been forward thinking to have our heroes reject the use of it on principal. But no such luck.

The most irritating moment of course is when their 'white friend' wants to know why he can't say it. He is angry he can't say it. The two guys give in and tell him he can say it, the female is still adamant he cannot. He says it in front of her, and she slaps him silly, saying ' it was just a reflex '. It's a funny moment. But it doesn't stop him from using the word. More sinister afterward he is with other white friends saying it. He doesn't get it and never will. Teachable moment, epically failed.

Our heroes are a black kid,Malcolm; a black lesbian, Diggy;  and a kid that remains racially unidentifiable named Jib, for the entire film. Was that supposed to be edgy, or was it just lazy on the part of the writer? Oh we can't have ALL the lead characters be black. Then we will lose our white audience.

Which comes to my main issue.

It seems this film was made 'for white kids to enjoy'. Yes, of course black kids who open themselves up to other music, movies, social scenes are accused of wanting to 'be white' by other black counterparts for doing so. HOWEVER, when I watch and listen carefully to the way these kids communicate, the choices they make and the mode of expression; it is in fact that they have been completely bled of their natural born swag and taken on the personas of suburban white kids. When they attend a party for the local drug dealer, the scenes are those of house parties we see in John Hughes films when white kids trash everything in sight with no fear of recourse or any respect for whomever's place they are visiting. 

Zoe Kravitz character Nakia serves you Denise Huxtable 2.0. Which  was a little creepy but not in a completely bad way. Of course the local drug dealer has a crush on her as does our hero Malcolm, what is a blerd to do? She wears crop tops and skimpy cutoffs, and seems confident even though her character is studying for her GED. There isn't really any back story on her, which makes me a little annoyed. The only other female lead is Lily played by Chanel Iman, who is a black version of the bored, rich vapid white girl we see in every teen movie. She makes herself sexually available the moment she comes on screen, and is naked for most of her screen time; which I found a little unnerving. Chanel has made a name for herself in the modeling world. Not just as a black model, but a model period. Then she takes this role and sort of undoes all that hard work in a few minutes on screen. Ugh.

Our hero Malcolm has the grades to get into Harvard, and has scheduled an interview with a local alum. The night before at the party the drug dealer stuffs his school backpack with drugs to hide and sends him on his way. The story twists and turns, and it's up to Mally Mal to turn said drugs (which happen to be Molly this time around, not coke, weed or heroin like in hood movies.) into cash or else.

So I sat thinking, so we're doing this? We're having the black kid who's on his way to Harvard deal drugs? You can kiss my whole ass with that. Is this the only story line that is available for black kids? I thought we were moving past that? 

The writer tries to put a fresh cyber heist take on the whole thing, having them deal on line using a pay pal like service, and then hacking into the bad guys accounts so it traces back to him so they don't get pinched. Ha ha clever. But still a movie about black kids dealing drugs to get out of the ghetto.

There are some quoteable moments. The 'hard c' conversation is an entertaining intellectual maze that will definitely be repeated at parties. The backtracking scenes in slow motion added comedy to the story telling which was very fun to watch. The end credits when every single dance of the 1990s is done one after the other made me laugh and cringe. (did we used to dance like that in public? OH MY GOD!!) This film wasn't made for black kids, the way FRIDAY was. This film was clearly made to appeal to suburban white kids. 

You got me.
But I'll keep waiting for my alt black feature film.


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