Dope (2015)

Jack and I loved this tight dramedy about a straight-A African-American nerd in the 'hood, whose plans to leave Inglewood for Harvard seem to go sideways after a chance encounter. A Sundance Grand Jury Prize nominee, the movie stars Shameik Moore, in his first leading role after only a handful of others, as Malcolm and, as his best friends, Kiersey Clemons (6 episodes of Transparent on Amazon as ex-stepdaughter Bianca hanging around the pool plus some other TV) and Tony Revolori (the lobby boy in The Grand Budapest Hotel). Two second generation actors in the picture are Zoë Kravitz (last linked in It's Kind of a Funny Story, and was in Mad Max: Fury Road but I didn't mention her) and Quincy Brown (new to me). Kravitz' parents are Lisa Bonet and Lenny Kravitz and Brown's adopted father is Sean Combs, a producer of this movie. The guy who plays Dom is top billed and apparently a famous rapper named A$ap Rocky, Blake Anderson (of the TV show Workaholics) has a funny bit as a hacker, model Chanel Imam plays an exhibitionist named Lily in her acting debut, and former basketball star Rick Fox (dozens of credits, none of which I've seen except the series Dirt) makes an appearance as well as a Councilman. Forest Whitaker (last blogged for starring as The Butler) narrates and produced.

Directed and written by Rick Famuyiwa (co-writer of Talk to Me (2007), the bio-pic of radio personality Petey Greene, the only one of the six he wrote that he didn't direct. He's currently in production directing one that he didn't write, a TV movie called Confirmation about Anita Hill starring Kerry Washington), the story moves beautifully through its twists and turns, with lots of laughs, plenty of hormones and raunch (these are high school kids, after all), and social commentary. Editor Lee Haugen won at Sundance and costume designer Patrik Milani should have been recognized for the colorful wardrobe. The three kids are obsessed with 90s pop culture, hence the imaginative outfits, and Malcolm sports a Kid 'n Play flattop haircut, leading me to be confused at first as to whether it's set in the past or the present. It is most definitely set in the present--Malcolm has an iPhone and talks to his mother about bitcoin.

There are great music tracks, including some played by the three kids in their own band--you'll hear "Oreo," but I had a closed caption device at my seat (I love them!) and can tell you that they spell it Awreeoh, which made me think of That Thing You Do (1996), when Tom Hanks made his charges change their band name from The Oneders to The Wonders. Imbd does a good job of documenting the songs, some of which are available on an album.

Lots of folks are talking about this and Rotten Tomatoes' critics are up to 90% (89 yesterday) and its audiences 86. You don't necessarily need the big screen to see this but we highly recommend it A$AP.