Malcolm is a geek in The Bottoms, a gang-infested neighborhood in Inglewood, CA. He's a straight A student and lives the 90s hip hop culture along with his friends Jib and lesbian Diggy. They are often picked on at school. Street drug dealer Dom gets Malcolm to invite Nakia (Zoë Kravitz) to his birthday party. Malcolm falls for Nakia. The party is raided by the police. Dom stuffs his drug and gun in Malcolm's backpack. Malcolm and his friends get hounded for this package as Malcolm tries to get into Harvard.
I love Malcolm and his friends. I root for them. They're sex obsessed like every high school movie teen. They're also pretty dumb at times. Jaleel is bool. His bit is hilarious. Same goes for Will Sherwood and the n-word. What I love coming from Rick Famuyiwa is the unexpected diversion from the standard tropes. I am a little uncertain about Malcolm breaking down the 4th wall to express the dichotomy of the two characteristic ideals. On the one hand, it's way too on-the-nose. The movie does a perfectly good job without that scene. On the other hand, he may want to hit that point especially hard and not want the audience to miss it.
4 out of 11 found this helpful