Dope, a 2015 coming-of-age comedy-drama released in 2015, tells the story of three geeky teenagers and their crazy escapades. Rick Famuyiwa wrote and directed the film, and he also served as its producer alongside Nina Yang Bongiovi. Starring Tony Revolori and Kiersey Clemons as Malcolm Adekanbi’s nerdy friends Jib and Diggy, who are extremely weird in every way – they love hip-hop music and even have their own punk band – and Shameik Moore in the role of Malcolm Adekanbi, one of the less popular students at school. The main character of the novel is Malcolm, who hopes to attend Harvard University but one day finds himself in possession of a bag full of cocaine by accident.
The film, set in Inglewood, California, shows the difficulties of surviving in a tough neighborhood, but not in the way you might imagine. The film simply depicts the real existence of a black teenager with a touch of humor; he asks neither pity nor approval. People who have lived in or near the same communities can relate to the film’s very real experiences, leading them to wonder if the plot is based on real events. Let’s investigate!
Dope
Is the drug a true story?
The movie “Dope” is not based on a factual narrative; rather, real events served as inspiration. Director Rick Famuyiwa, who wrote the screenplay, also explored Inglewood in his 1999 feature ‘The Wood’. Famuyiwa worked on other important films, including “Brown Sugar”. Dope, which was made in just 25 days with an unknown cast, depicts incidents that audiences found relevant and realistic. Famuyiwa, who grew up in Inglewood, remarked that “Dope” is like a “what if” simulation of how her life could have been different in an interview with the New York Post. It’s simple to spot several occasions where this coming-of-age movie feels incredibly authentic since the author has incorporated bits of his own experiences into the narrative.
Malcolm, Jib, and Diggy aren’t your typical teenagers, so “Dope” could have been a cliché movie about the struggles of black teenagers growing up in a tough neighborhood. Although they have similar experiences to other children from high-crime areas, they stand out for their curiosity about life. These are the children of the digital age who, despite their circumstances, are optimistic about the future. Famuyiwa said, “I wanted to try to redefine the perception of what we call mainstream,” in an interview with the director of Wired. Very often the upper middle class white suburb is what we call the mainstream. Everything else is considered a niche market. “I didn’t want it to feel like we’re just putting black people everywhere,” he continued. I deliberately made it very specific. They face many difficulties that other people do not know. I wanted to be very honest about it while conveying the idea that just because it’s not your exact experiences doesn’t mean you still can’t relate to it.
The fact that we live in a country where anything is conceivable, he continued, “was a big part of what drove him,” as he gave an additional explanation for the start of the film. Although I grew up not too long ago, it seems quite archaic that you have to go to the library and use the world book encyclopedias. However, how does having quick access to everything affect your view of the world? That was the inspiration for how I conceptualized these people and their environment.
Famuyiwa wanted “Dope” to feel authentic in every way, from how it expresses the story to how it depicts the relationships between characters and technology. In an interview with Wired, he went into further detail on this element, saying, “You can’t control where you’re born and when you grow up, unless you’ve seen something different, you live just your life. life. These kids don’t even see themselves as being in a bad or horrible situation. There is a sense of limitlessness within this generation. Because he is related to many of these students, Harvard and Ivy League schools seem authentic and possible to [Malcolm]. It opens up a world of opportunities for us, but it also makes us aware of the problems we still face. Malcolm and his friends, in my opinion, cope with everything.
Asked about his personal experiences, Famuyiwa told the New York Post that the storyline in which Malcolm meets a drug dealer is based on his own experience. “[The actual dealer] stood on the corner and waved me over,” he remarked. He said, “There’s a pretty girl over there. I want you to say ‘hello’ for me,” just like in the movie. I considered the situation and all the ways things could have gone wrong. It’s clear that Famuyiwa’s experiences served as an inspiration to Malcolm , the main character, as he puts it: “I’ve always been this strange foreign kid. The first-generation American with Nigerian parents who wants to go to Harvard University, likes 90s hip hop and lives in The Bottoms, a high crime area, is the inspiration for the high school geek.
Famuyiwa intended to tell the story of a young black man who struggles to achieve his dream of going to Harvard University despite living in a very tough neighborhood. Many viewers were interested to know if the story was based on true events due to the storyline, script, location, and how young the teens were. A young black man from Inglewood goes through real events, which Famuyiwa masterfully captures in “Dope”, even if the characters and the plot are imaginary. The hardships endured by Malcolm are modeled by real events in Famuyiwa’s own life.
