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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