I watched Dope without subjecting my eyes to a single trailer beforehand. All I knew about the movie was that it had young people of color, and the poster – that I peeped sundry times in my periphery whilst whipping around LA – was visually voluptuous. The way people tend to define SPOILER ALERT is different. If you are worried, STOP READING HERE and go watch Dope.

The film starts with etymology. Brilliant. Alert Los Angelinos shout “heeeeeeey” when they watch movies and see Randy’s Donuts, palm trees, or UCLA’s libraries. Dope digs deeper. You get to see the Inglewood Courthouse (where I help cats settle their lawsuits), the cinema turned church on Broadway in downtown, and Grant High School in the Valley. If you and “the internets” know each other, then you’ve known about memes since 2004 on 4chan’s /b/. Toasty, I broke the first rule. And you lost the game. Now, eleven years later, Dope is teaching the A, B, Cs and ha, hu, hees of making a meme go viral. Watch out for Lily. She’s Molly’s homie. Bitcoin. This movie is relevant. Learn a smidgen about Bitcoin (there are other anti-authoritarian digital currencies) and you can do your own research later.

Dope is a riot. At the same time, the comedy stretches your cheeks as wide as the Cheshire cat’s cheeks, the terse cuts and action sequences remind you of Guy Ritchie’s Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels and Snatch, and every Jason Statham movie ever. Habeshas that want to preserve their culture should follow Dope’s lead, by crafting creative projects that unabashedly tell their stories. I can’t resist the low-hanging fruit, Dope is dope – it has my cosign, does it have yours?

By: Henok.