Malcolm Adekanbi and his best friends, Jib Caldones and Diggy Andrews, are high school "geeks" living in "The Bottoms", a high-crime neighborhood in Inglewood, California. They idolize 90's hip hop music and fashion. Malcolm is confident he will be admitted to his dream school, Harvard University, but his school counselor is skeptical and suggests he take an interview with local businessman and Harvard alumnus, Austin Jacoby.
While biking home, Malcolm is stopped by Dom, a drug dealer who instructs him to invite a girl named Nakia to his party. Malcolm charms Nakia, who tells him she will only accept if Malcolm goes as well. Jib and Diggy accompany Malcolm to the party, where Dom's purchase of high-grade, powdered molly is interrupted by an armed gang, and several people are shot. Malcolm escapes as the police arrive, unaware that Dom has hidden the drugs and a gun in his backpack. Nakia drives Malcolm home, and he offers to help her with her GED.
The next day, Malcolm discovers the drugs, gun, and an iPhone. An unknown caller reveals that he knows Malcolm's identity and instructs him to turn over the drugs. After school, Malcolm prepares to hand over the drugs when he receives a call from Dom, in custody, who tells Malcolm not to give the drugs to the other caller. He texts Malcolm an address and tells him to ask for AJ.
Malcolm, Jib and Diggy flee to the address, chased by the unknown caller, and are greeted by Jaleel and his sister Lily. Since AJ, their father, isn't home, Jaleel invites them inside their mansion and takes Jib and Diggy out for food, while Lily seduces Malcolm, finds the drugs and takes a heavy dose. Intoxicated, Lily passes out while driving Malcolm to his interview before urinating on a bush while bystanders record, and Malcolm drives her car to the meeting himself.
Arriving at Jacoby's office, he notices photos of Dom, Lily, and Jaleel and realizes Jacoby is AJ. Malcolm relays Dom's instructions to Jacoby, who denies any knowledge and implies that the contents of the bag are now Malcolm's responsibility. Jacoby reschedules the interview, warning Malcolm that if he has not sold the drugs by then, he will not receive Jacoby's recommendation to Harvard.
Malcolm, Jib and Diggy seek help from hacker Will Sherwood, who sets up an online black-market website to sell the drugs through Bitcoin transactions, which soon goes viral. The three friends enroll in a Google Science Fair project to access the school lab and computer room, where they can sell the drugs to the various buyers. Even though no one suspects them, they almost get caught one day during a routine police search. This episode frightens Jib who wants to leave, but eventually accepts to go on to finish the sales.
Malcolm helps Nakia study, and she opens up to him, but he accuses her of being sent by Dom and pushes her away. The next day, Malcolm asks Will to extract cash from the Bitcoins, and arranges a meeting with a money-laundering gangster named Fidel. Malcolm leaves the meeting with a bag of cash, but is assaulted by the school bully, who takes the bag. Desperate, Malcolm pulls out the gun, retrieving the money and earning the bully's respect.
Returning to AJ's office, Malcolm tells Jacoby that he has sold the drugs but has left a trail leading to Jacoby – unless Jacoby gets him admitted to Harvard, Malcolm will transfer the Bitcoins to Jacoby's checking account, incriminating Jacoby for the sale and leading to his arrest. Later Malcolm types his college application essay, describing two students – Student A is a music geek who plays in a punk band and gets straight As, while Student B suffers in the hood and makes money in immoral ways. He asks, "Which student do you think I am?"
Malcolm gets a modern haircut and waits for Nakia at prom, but she does not show. Later, Nakia meets Malcolm at his home and thanks him for helping her pass her GED, giving him a pass to Six Flags and they share a kiss. He returns to his room to find a letter from Harvard on his bed. He opens it and looks at the audience before smiling.
Dope grossed $6.1 million in its opening weekend, finishing 5th at the box office behind Jurassic World ($106.6 million), Inside Out ($90.4 million), Spy ($11.2 million) and San Andreas ($8.7 million).[18] At the end of its theatrical run, the film grossed just shy of $18 million worldwide.[3]
Critical response
Dope received positive reviews from critics. On Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds a rating of 89%, based on 150 reviews, with an average rating of 7.3/10. The website's critical consensus reads, "Featuring a starmaking performance from Shameik Moore and a refreshingly original point of view from writer-director Rick Famuyiwa, Dope is smart, insightful entertainment."[19] On Metacritic, the film has a score of 72 out of 100, based on 37 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".[20] Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an "A−" grade.[21]
The Guardian gave the film five stars out of five, describing the entire cast as "revolutionary".[22]IGN awarded it 7 out of 10, saying "Comedy, romance, drama and crime rub shoulders in entertaining coming-of-age flick."[23]
Teen film scholar Björn Sonnenberg-Schrank writes: "Dope is an important contemporary contribution to the teen film canon, as the majority of texts purport a white middle-class perspective with limited and oftentimes overtly stereotypical deviations in regard to gender, sexuality, class, or ethnicity (instances of poorly handled representations of non-white or non-American characters ranging from Sixteen Candles’ Long Duk Dong to gratuitous African-American sidekicks reduced to shouting catchphrases."[24]
^Sonnenberg-Schrank, Björn (2020). Actor-Network Theory at the Movies: Reassembling the Contemporary American Teen Film With Latour. Springer eBook Collection. Cham: Springer International Publishing. p. 138. ISBN978-3-030-31286-2.
