Malcolm Adekanbi is a straight A African American student with nearly perfect SAT scores. The only problem is that he lives in Inglewood, California, a place where even the adults do not believe that he can get into prestigious universities like Harvard. He and his close band of friends who play in a punk band are the butt of jokes at school. They are labeled as outcasts and geeks until they decide to crash a local drug dealer’s birthday party. Their straight edge lifestyle takes a nosedive as Malcolm suddenly gets into the possession of a stash of drugs. They travel out of Inglewood to Coachella and Lollapalooza “to find the white people” to whom the drugs must be delivered before time runs out. ‘Dope’ hit theaters on Friday, June 19. The film was rated R by the Motion Picture Association of America.

IMDb rated the film 7.0 based on 868 user ratings. Metacritic gave the film a Metascore of 72 based on reviews by 32 critics. It received 27 positive reviews and 5 mixed reviews. Its Userscore is 6.8. Rotten Tomatoes rated the film 90% on its Tomatometer with an average rating of 7.6/10 based on 87 reviews. 78 of its reviews were Fresh, while 9 were Rotten. Its Audience Score is 85% with an average rating of 4.1/5 based on 8,053 user ratings. The film runs for 103 minutes.

"I'm from a poor, crime-filled neighborhood raised by a single mother, don't know my dad, blah blah. It's cliché,” says Malcolm in the film’s official movie trailer.

‘Dope’ stars Shameik Moore as Malcolm, Kiersey Clemons as Diggy, Tony Revolori as Jib, Zoë Kravitz as Nakia, A$AP Rocky as Dom, Blake Anderson as Will, Keith Stanfield as Bug, Rick Fox as Councilman Blackmon, Kimberly Elise as Lisa Hayes, Chanel Iman as Lily, Amin Joseph as The Voice, Allen Maldonado as Alan the Bouncer, Ashton Moio as Lance, Roger Guenveur Smith as Austin Jacoby, De'aundre Bonds as Stacey, Quincy Brown as Jaleel, Mimi Michaels as Mindy, Kap-G as Fidel, Tyga as De'Andre, Larnell Stovall as The Driver, Julian Brand as Mario, Lidia Porto as Marta, Bruce Beatty as Mr. Bailey, and Forest Whitaker as the Narrator.

The film was directed and written by Rick Famuyiwa. The producers of the film are Pharrell Williams, Sean Combs, Forest Whitaker and Nina Yang Bongiovi. The film’s cinematographer is Rachel Morrison. It was edited by Lee Haugen. The production companies behind the film are Significant Productions, JuntoBox Films, i am OTHER, and Revolt Films. It was distributed by Open Road Films and Sony Pictures.

Reviews from Rotten Tomatoes:

“It's a remorselessly entertaining, Frankenstein's monster of pop-culture borrowings and appropriations. So much so that it becomes very much its own thing,” wrote Bilge Ebiri from New York Magazine/Vulture.

“Dope's biggest strength lies in its affectionate and honest portrait of a different kind of young urban blackness than we're used to seeing on movie screens,” wrote Dana Stevens from Slate.

“Even as Famuyiwa acknowledges the preconceptions that Malcolm's blackness engenders, he invites audiences to identify with the character on the basis of his relatable interests, aspirations and vulnerabilities,” wrote Julian Carrington from Globe and Mail.

“When so many black movie characters are simple stereotypes, it's a pleasure to see a film with real wit about the benefits and pitfalls of playing to and against those expectations,” wrote Patrick Dunn from Detroit News.

“Be sure to stay for the end credits. No other summer-movie credit crawl is going to get audiences dusting off their old Running Man and Cabbage Patch dance moves like this one. Take that, Jurassic World,” wrote Cary Darling from Fort Worth Star-Telegram/DFW.Com

“The tone is fast and funny, with a modern "Risky Business" or "Ferris Bueller's Day Off" vibe, but there's an additional layer that stems from the violence of the neighborhood,” wrote Jordan Hoffman from New York Daily News.

“The acting is uniformly good. This is Moore's first big role, and he delivers a performance both entertaining and believable,” wrote Bill Goodykoontz from Arizona Republic.