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Thursday, June 25, 2015

The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com ARTS

‘Dope’ sure to be classic

MOVIE REVIEW

Plot successfully 

balances the serious 

and lighthearted

By LAUREN WOOD

Daily Arts Writer

Starting from the most major 

points, 
let’s 
at 

least try to catego-
rize “Dope,” the 
Rick 
Famuyiwa 

(“The Wood”) pic-
ture that came out 
this past week. 
First, there’s the 
main 
charac-

ters — a group of 
geeky high school 
kids getting their 
shoes stolen in the hallways, orga-
nizing their hip punk band in after 
school classrooms and working 
toward attending big schools like 
Harvard. Who, at the same time, are 
part of a group of teenagers growing 
up in the hood, selling dope through 
an online black market and evading 
the police and other dealers to stay 
on top. Second, there’s where they 
live, Inglewood, CA, with gangs 
blocking off nearly every street cor-
ner and friends shot while waiting in 
line for fast food. Where outrunning 
gangs and cops isn’t downplayed 
exactly, but shown through a lens of 
teenage invincibility — punctuated 
by bouncy ’90s rap, peppered with 
laughter and that indefinite security 
of solidarity under pressure. And 
finally, we have the film itself. Part 
John Hughes adolescent under-
standing, part hood film, part satiri-
cal documentary biopic. Indefinable 
and resistant under the all that shiny 
California sun. “Dope”, overall, is a 

huge success, a piece that expresses 
itself in the space between catego-
ries, following its teenage characters 
as they try to do just the same.

“Dope” introduces high school 

senior Malcolm, played by newcom-
er Shameik Moore, as a classified 
geek whose life consists of obsessing 
over ’90s culture, playing in a make-
shift punk band (called Awreeoh, or 
Oreo, black on the outside but white 
in the middle) and working toward a 
Harvard acceptance. He and his best 
friends, Diggy (Kiersey Clemons, 
“Transparent”) and Jib (Tony Revol-
ori, “The Grand Budapest Hotel”), 
are uncool in a way that’s completely 
cool, with thrift shop style and off-
beat but catchy music that really only 
results in them getting beaten up or 
having their bikes stolen. But, after 
getting themselves into a birthday 
party for a neighborhood dope deal-
er and ending up with a backpack of 
stolen molly and a gun, the group 
must figure out how to navigate the 
landscape of drugs and violence in 
the neighborhood they have always 
been part of. As it turns out, the 
Harvard alum Malcolm interviews 
with is the head of the drug ring he’s 
been pulled into, and instead of judg-
ing Malcolm’s character and smarts 
with a formal sit down talk, AJ 
(Roger Guenveur Smith, “American 
Gangster”) decides that seeing how 
Malcolm handles a situation like 
moving thousands of dollars’ worth 
of dope would be a more than accu-
rate test of self.

The story, though somewhat 

serious in subject matter, is kept 
fresh and optimistic in the way the 
film blurs the line between the fic-
tionally ridiculous and larger top-
ics of race and class. Having to sell 
drugs because your college men-
tor wants to see what you can do is 

as far-fetched as it gets, but being 
pulled into a world of illegal dealing 
because it’s the only option for suc-
cess is all too real for many. In this 
way, “Dope” isn’t a film that’s about 
race or class, holding these issues 
on some untouchable pedestal from 
which we all discuss afar. Instead, 
Famuyiwa tells us a story about 
friendship and growing up and suc-
ceeding, organically addressing how 
race and class might influence any of 
these pivotal moments and play into 
the lives of his characters.

This fresh attitude the film 

holds while exploring the realities 
of a group of kids from Inglewood 
is carried over to the filmmaking 
itself. From the music to the style 
to the issues at play, “Dope” is a 
film that firmly places itself in 2015. 
It’s indie without being inacces-
sible, and honestly one of the only 
films in recent memory where the 
use of technology or social media 
doesn’t feel like a command from 
some high up production exec to 
get some of that Facebook in there!” 
“Dope” presents a film full of cre-
atively edited party sequences, a 
satirical narrator, suspenseful split 
screens, and ordinary moments of 
stupid jokes and laughter — a film 
kept fresh and self aware not only 
through its subject matter but its 
storytelling as well.

“We blur the line between cat-

egory and definition,” Malcolm 
proclaims in his Harvard admis-
sions statement, deciding finally 
that there is no one category to find 
a place in, but success is found in 
the overlap. A focus on teenagers 
growing up in Inglewood that finds 
its voice in the balance between the 
serious and lighthearted, “Dope” 
establishes itself as a fresh, genera-
tional classic.

‘Wives Club’ is 
not ‘Mad Men’

TV REVIEW

By SOPHIA KAUFMAN

Daily Arts Writer

The day “Mad Men” ended was 

a sad, sad day in the television 
world. But at the same time, the 
show’s writers 
wrapped every-
thing up well — 
leaving us with 
tears 
in 
our 

eyes, 
maybe, 

but 
ultimately 

leaving us with 
a laugh and the 
knowledge that 
the show got 
the 
attention 

and the ending 
it deserved. We felt at peace.

And then, a couple of days 

later, we started twitching from 
the “Mad Men” withdrawal.

ABC jumped at the chance to 

fill that void in our hearts with 
“Astronaut Wives Club,” their 
shiny new period drama. Despite 
being based off of a true story — 
that of the astronauts of the Mer-
cury Project during the Cold War 
era — almost everything about 
“Launch” falls flat.

In the first scene, we are intro-

duced to seven women and their 
husbands at a party in a dizzy-
ing five minutes. There is a lot of 
dancing, a lot of polite yet barbed 
small talk and a lot of judgmental 
looks shooting from this wife to 
that one to that one’s husband. 
Watching these women check 
out the competition — not for 
themselves, but for their hus-
bands, one of whom will be the 
first man launched into orbit — is 
uncomfortable. Watching them 
shoot thinly veiled jibes at each 
other after being introduced is 
painful. 

The women go down to Flor-

ida to surprise their husbands, 
who are working hard — get-
ting drunk, swimming in pools, 
trying to impress other young 
women, etc. A few of these fun-
loving husbands are less than 
happy to see their wives.

After they all find out who will 

be the first man to go to space, 
his wife rejects the home-cooked 
dishes prepared by the other 
women as a gesture of wifely 
solidarity.

Later, she graciously accepts 

the food and emotional support, 
and the episode ends with a cute, 
heartwarming scene of all of the 
women dancing together in cel-
ebration — and anticipation for 
what the following months will 
bring.

This show could’ve be titled 

The Real Housewives of the 
1960’s for the amount of depth 
it holds so far. The treatment 
of women isn’t as nuanced as 
in “Mad Men,” to which it will 
absolutely be compared. It lacks 
the subtle wry humor that “Mad 
Men” had, instead touching only 
briefly on the most superficial 
levels of sexist attitudes of the 
time — if there are jokes, the 
jokes are lost. 

Like the film “The Help,” the 

show is so self-indulgently beau-
tiful — scenes in soft golden sun-
light, flattering camera angles, 
painstakingly perfect hair and 
makeup, 
and 
cherubic 
chil-

dren — that you almost forget it 
is attempting to portray a real 
story. However, the actors do 
the best with what they’ve been 
given, and many of the women 
show promise; if the following 
episodes slow down, flesh out 
the storylines of each couple and 
give each of the wives time and 
space to take a deep breath, we 
will see something more than 
just perfunctory performances. 

“Mad Men” proved that people 

can be captivated by shows that 
shine a spotlight on specific times in 
our history; “The Astronaut Wives 
Club” has a long way to go before it 
can reach the kind of love lavished 
on Don Draper and Peggy Olson. 
The historical detail found in the 
clothing and scenery is amazing; if 
the writing catches up, the acting 
will too. And then maybe — maybe 
— it will give “Mad Men” a run for 
its money. Not likely, though.

A

Dope

Significant 
Productions

Rave 20 & 

Quality 16

C

Astronaut 
Wives Club

Series Pre-
miere

ABC

The show is so 
self-indulgently 

beautiful

MOVIE REVIEW

SIGNIFICANT PRODUCTIONS

A$AP DOPEY

