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Dolemite is My Name
A dazzling performance from Eddie Murphy is at the center of a richly entertaining biopic called Dolemite is My Name that, as good as it is, probably won't do great box office due to the fact that its subject is someone most moviegoers have never heard of and don't care about.
This 2019 film chronicles the shooting star that was the career of Rudy Ray Moore, a second rate nightclub emcee who carved out a new career for himself creating a style of musical rhymes that would eventually morph into what we call rap today and parlay that into a movie career when he gets a chance to bring a character he created named Dolemite to the big screen,
Screenwriters Scott Alexander and Larry Karaszewski are no strangers to biopics having written the screenplays for The People VS Larry Flynt, Big Eyes, and the film this one most reminded me of Ed Wood because the story is centered around a show business figure who wasn't really very good at what he did but made the most of his 15 minutes.
Director Craig Brewer (Hustle and Flow) mounts Rudy's story with loving respect and detail, almost too much detail, as the center of the film between Rudy's nightclub career and his movie career, starts to sag a little, but what's on either side of that center is pure gold. It was so much fun watching Rudy's humble beginnings gathering the material for his raps and making it his own. It was equally as fun watching Rudy get a hard lesson in the reality of movie making and how it's not as easy as it might appear. There is a particularly lovely moment in the film that Murphy nails where Rudy is worried about filming a sex scene because he's afraid people will laugh at his big belly.
Eddie Murphy has not been this entertaining onscreen since Dreamgirls, offering a performance that is just as Oscar-worthy as that one was. Mike Epps, Craig Robinson, and Tituss Burgess are a lot of fun as the loyal members of Rudy's posse. Cheers as well to Keegan-Michael Key as Dolemite screenwriter Jerry Jones and an especially hilarious return to films for Wesley Snipes, playing D'Urville Martin, the flamboyantly gay director and co-star of Dolemite. Production values are on the money, especially the outrageous costumes that scream the 60's and 70's. Scenes from the original 1975 film Dolemite are actually featured near the conclusion of this film, which looked kind of silly next to this loving and lavish tribute to its star and creator.
A dazzling performance from Eddie Murphy is at the center of a richly entertaining biopic called Dolemite is My Name that, as good as it is, probably won't do great box office due to the fact that its subject is someone most moviegoers have never heard of and don't care about.
This 2019 film chronicles the shooting star that was the career of Rudy Ray Moore, a second rate nightclub emcee who carved out a new career for himself creating a style of musical rhymes that would eventually morph into what we call rap today and parlay that into a movie career when he gets a chance to bring a character he created named Dolemite to the big screen,
Screenwriters Scott Alexander and Larry Karaszewski are no strangers to biopics having written the screenplays for The People VS Larry Flynt, Big Eyes, and the film this one most reminded me of Ed Wood because the story is centered around a show business figure who wasn't really very good at what he did but made the most of his 15 minutes.
Director Craig Brewer (Hustle and Flow) mounts Rudy's story with loving respect and detail, almost too much detail, as the center of the film between Rudy's nightclub career and his movie career, starts to sag a little, but what's on either side of that center is pure gold. It was so much fun watching Rudy's humble beginnings gathering the material for his raps and making it his own. It was equally as fun watching Rudy get a hard lesson in the reality of movie making and how it's not as easy as it might appear. There is a particularly lovely moment in the film that Murphy nails where Rudy is worried about filming a sex scene because he's afraid people will laugh at his big belly.
Eddie Murphy has not been this entertaining onscreen since Dreamgirls, offering a performance that is just as Oscar-worthy as that one was. Mike Epps, Craig Robinson, and Tituss Burgess are a lot of fun as the loyal members of Rudy's posse. Cheers as well to Keegan-Michael Key as Dolemite screenwriter Jerry Jones and an especially hilarious return to films for Wesley Snipes, playing D'Urville Martin, the flamboyantly gay director and co-star of Dolemite. Production values are on the money, especially the outrageous costumes that scream the 60's and 70's. Scenes from the original 1975 film Dolemite are actually featured near the conclusion of this film, which looked kind of silly next to this loving and lavish tribute to its star and creator.