Dolemite Is My Name (2019) ★★★

Reviewed on FHC 149

The Disaster Artist but... Blaxploitation but.... about a better and more important movie. So... not exactly The Disaster Artist.

Dolemite Is My Name is the telling of the story of the man behind the iconic Blaxploitation pimp character Dolemite, Rudy Ray Moore. Directed by Craig Brewer (Black Snake Moan, Hustle & Flow) it sees Eddie Murphy as a euphoric musician/stand-up/movie star working to climb the social ladder to fame- a thing he has always felt destined for. Much of the film follows Moore's early tribulations as a daytime record store employee struggling to get his records (of which he has many - still in boxes piled against a wall in a relative's apartment) on the air. Unfortunately he's competing with the like of Chuck Barry and it becomes clear that his musical chops just aren't enough to cut it. After hearing a homeless man (and regular at the record store) tell a quick joke with a witty punchline about a man named Dolemite, Moore realizes he may be able to craft an entire act around this fictional character and Dolemite is born. In the following hour we witness the fruition of what will become the The Citizen Kaneof Blaxploitation (The New York Times) and a film referenced and revered for the next several decades by the likes of Tarantino, and both Snoop Dogg and Eddie Murphy themselves who appear in this retelling.

Murphy's portrait of Moore functions as something more than caricature simply by virtue of his concession to the, at times, absurdity of the man's larger-than-life personality. I'm SURE an under-drawn parody version of this movie may have existed in the hands of another director. However, the commitment of Brewer, Murphy, and the cast keeps this film elevated as something that rests comfortably between a comedy and a biopic.

Murphy's wonderfully exuberant Rudy Ray Moore is overshadowed only, at times, by Wesley Snipes' D'Urville Martin; an eccentric movie star-turned director of Moore's cinematic pipe dream. Coming off of a recent hiatus from filmmaking, Snipes does more than make up for lost time here. He's enigmatic (at times literally thanks to a certain handful of substances), boisterous, bubbly, and downright weird. Seeing him step out of his usual roles and into this wonderful comedic performance was a notable highlight of this movie. Actually, most of the cast is clearly having a lot of fun and playing around here. The way that they behave elicits ideas of what it may have been like on the set of Dolemite circa 1975. However, it's the tangible lightheartedness and completely goofy nature of Moore that keeps viewers stuck to the screen. 

While this is far from perfect, it was an enjoyable Monday afternoon on Netflix and the story of Rudy Ray Moore was worth telling. Would watch again.