The new Eddie Murphy starring Netflix original Dolemite is My Name is based on the life of Rudy Ray Moore who was a stand-up comic, musician, and actor who was most popular in the 1970s. This is a bio that I suspect was important to Eddie Murphy who probably was inspired by the comedian who was big when he was coming up. I suspect Moore and his character Dolemite have long fallen out of pop culture except for people who loved him back in the day and movie fans who love 70s movies in general and blacksploitaton movies in particular.
Murphy stars as Moore as a guy who is scrabbling for name recognition and fame. His music career isn’t going well, his stand-up routine is ignored. That’s until he hits upon his braggadocio proto-rapper character Dolemite… a sing-song rhyming character who works blue. Bluer than most record/media companies are comfortable with. But Moore knows his audience, knows what makes them laugh, and self-publishes his albums. He then wants to make a movie based on the character but no studios are interesting in funding it. So he does what he does best… hustles for the cash, the crew, the equipment.
I really enjoyed this movie as a 70s-inspired bit of film lover’s fun. It does a great job of emulating the era and presenting a man who knows what he wants… even if he doesn’t really know how to get it. The hard-scrabble, chintzy, borderline corny movie he wants to make is, I suspect, very bad (never seen the Dolemite movies) but he got them made. And the first film, at least, made a lot of money. As a presentation of seeing a market and gettin’ things done, this is a pretty great movie.
It’s also a pretty crude and rude movie as befitting the Dolemite character. I don’t think that should turn anyone off from watching the movie thought. And it’s nice to see Murphy back in a meaty roll that lets him play to his late 70s/early 80s strengths. It might be a bit of a shock to younger people who see Murphy and think Donkey and Mushu and not a lot of four letter words. It’s fun!
So, yeah, very good movie about a very specific time in movie making. It’s worth checking out as a movie about aspiration, hustling, and achieving one’s goals
Score: 86