--- title: Review: Dope Injects Urban Struggle With John Hughes Heart description: Rick Famuyiwa's festival hit has charm to spare canonical: https://time.com/3926047/dope-movie-review/ author: Mary Pols article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-06-18T11:03:51.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-22T08:19:11.767Z article:section: Entertainment og:title: Review: Dope Injects Urban Struggle With John Hughes Heart og:description: Rick Famuyiwa's festival hit has charm to spare og:url: https://time.com/3926047/dope-movie-review/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt2db36f8cdae9fed6/69885527f887dc9fdee90fd3/dope-movie.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: dope-movie og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Review: Dope Injects Urban Struggle With John Hughes Heart twitter:description: Rick Famuyiwa's festival hit has charm to spare twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt2db36f8cdae9fed6/69885527f887dc9fdee90fd3/dope-movie.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Review: _Dope_ Injects Urban Struggle With John Hughes Heart by [Mary Pols](/author/mary-pols/) ## Mary Pols Jun 18, 2015 11:03 AM CUT  Open Road Films by [Mary Pols](/author/mary-pols/) ## Mary Pols Jun 18, 2015 11:03 AM CUT Inglewood, Calif., high school senior and self-professed geek Malcolm (Shameik Moore) is so obsessed with ’90s culture that he sports a Fresh Prince fade haircut. But writer-director Rick Famuyiwa’s _Dope_ itself seems inspired by ’80s classics, as Malcolm and his best friends, Jib (Tony Revolori) and androgynous lesbian Diggy (charmer Kiersey Clemons), share a sweet, funny camaraderie straight out of John Hughes. The frisky plot, meanwhile, is pure _Risky Business_, with Malcolm going to Joel Goodsen-like lengths to get out of the ghetto and into Harvard. His counselor orders him to ditch his notion of an unbeatable admissions essay—”If Neil deGrasse \[Tyson\] was writing about Ice Cube, this is what it would look like!”—in favor of a personal story about life in the ‘hood. Malcolm assiduously stays off those mean streets until the allure of a worldly beauty (Zoë Kravitz) lands him at an underground party where trouble is unavoidable. _Dope_ mixes constant comic energy with a sense of genuine threat to its enterprising hero. Blessed with puppy eyes and fantastic timing, Moore may not dance in his underwear, but hearing Malcolm’s punk band Awreeoh (yes, like the cookie) is nearly as good. _Dope_: not just another teen movie. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3926047/dope-movie-review/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3926047/dope-movie-review/"},"headline":"Review: Dope Injects Urban Struggle With John Hughes Heart","datePublished":"2015-06-18T11:03:51.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-22T08:19:11.767Z","description":"Rick Famuyiwa's festival hit has charm to spare","url":"https://time.com/3926047/dope-movie-review/","keywords":["movies"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt2db36f8cdae9fed6/69885527f887dc9fdee90fd3/dope-movie.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Mary Pols","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/mary-pols/"}],"articleSection":"Entertainment","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt2db36f8cdae9fed6/69885527f887dc9fdee90fd3/dope-movie.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"dope-movie","caption":"","creditText":"Open Road Films","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/entertainment/","name":"Entertainment"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/movies/","name":"movies"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3926047/dope-movie-review/","name":"Review: Dope Injects Urban Struggle With John Hughes Heart"}}]}] ```