Well I gotta make it clear that I'm a big critic, and the film has received a lot of praise, so I'm pretty certain I'll always be in the minority in my critique of Dope.
But I felt that Dope could've explored and developed the racial experience for teens a lot better than it did. Its like the recent documentary that aired on MTV, White People -- they had something interesting to look at and explore, but it failed to truly do anything great with the material.
The film had fine women, minor action sequences, cool cameos, and good music. But I felt like what they actually covered in the film was too bare, and it only served to promote that 'new black' message that Pharrel was pushing.
I watched Dope not expecting too much, because I already knew the film wasn't exactly made with me in mind. This movie was meant to talk to teens who still haven't really found the proper platform to express their still sophomoric views and ideas on race. Its a generation that has been largely confined to tweet character limits, instagram captions and Facebook posts, people who haven't had the chance to discuss and develop their views. That's why a lot of the movie felt so stale to me, the humor and ideas expressed in the film are retreads of shyt we've all seen or read on social media.
