"Make your own legend." This is Dolemite Is My Name. This biographical comedy film directed by Craig Brewer and written by Scott Alexander and Larry Karaszewski. The film centres on real-life legend Rudy Ray Moore, a comedy and rap pioneer who proved naysayers wrong when his hilarious, obscene, kung-fu fighting alter ego, Dolemite, became a 1970s Blaxploitation phenomenon.
In early June 2018, it was announced that Brewer would direct a film on the comedy and rap pioneer from a script by Alexander and Karaszewski with Eddie Murphy was set to star as Moore, and Netflix producing and distributing. By mid June, Keegan-Michael Key, Craig Robinson, Da'Vine Joy Randolph, Wesley Snipes, Chris Rock, Luenell, Kodi Smit-McPhee, Tommie Earl Jenkins, and Snoop Dogg rounded out the film's cast. At the same time, principal photography commenced, and took place in Los Angeles.
The film stars Murphy, Key, Robinson, Joy Randolph, Snipes, Rock, Luenell, Smit-McPhee, Earl Jenkins, and Snoop Dogg. Terrifically hilarious performances were given by the cast, especially from Murphy, that is a tribute to creative passion and also to friendship. Murphy is eerily dead-on in his portrayal of Moore, which helps to elevate the film above the script's formulaic biopic cliches. Murphy once gain proved himself to one of the best comedic actors of his generation. Murphy captures all the can-do swagger that made Moore the man that he was, thanks to an extremely funny ability to look at the silver lining of any cloud.
One of the truly bizarre careers in American cultural life provides the source of tart and tasty amusement Dolemite Is My Name. Brewer and Murphy team up to fête the life and work of rap pioneer and comedy legend, Rudy Ray Moore, with strange and wonderful results. What Brewer has made is a film which celebrates Moore more than it mocks him, and which celebrates, too, the funky spirit of 1970s exploitation films, in which a great title, a has-been star and a lurid ad campaign were enough to get people to Netflix for one of the curiously charming films ever made. It's an exultant comedy of African-American repression and revolt. An entertaining -- and unexpectedly stirring -- account of Moore's life that asks us to regard the rap pioneer and comedy legend as an invaluable champion for African-Americans in the entertainment industry. The film may be Brewer's most personal and provocative movie to date. We're really celebrating Hollywood's freedom to create biographies of anyone, no matter how high or low on the social ladder, and still come up with the same banal characteristics, messages and conclusions. However, it's outrageously entertaining as it is outrageously disjointed, it stands as a successful outsider's tribute to a kindred outsider spirit. What is most wonderful about the film, a very good one at that, is that it remains true to Moore's stubborn vision. Oh, it brightens things up a little. But essentially it stays true to his persona: A guy who would charm you, entertainment you, and provoke you.
One of the truly bizarre careers in American cultural life provides the source of tart and tasty amusement Dolemite Is My Name. Brewer and Murphy team up to fête the life and work of rap pioneer and comedy legend, Rudy Ray Moore, with strange and wonderful results. What Brewer has made is a film which celebrates Moore more than it mocks him, and which celebrates, too, the funky spirit of 1970s exploitation films, in which a great title, a has-been star and a lurid ad campaign were enough to get people to Netflix for one of the curiously charming films ever made. It's an exultant comedy of African-American repression and revolt. An entertaining -- and unexpectedly stirring -- account of Moore's life that asks us to regard the rap pioneer and comedy legend as an invaluable champion for African-Americans in the entertainment industry. The film may be Brewer's most personal and provocative movie to date. We're really celebrating Hollywood's freedom to create biographies of anyone, no matter how high or low on the social ladder, and still come up with the same banal characteristics, messages and conclusions. However, it's outrageously entertaining as it is outrageously disjointed, it stands as a successful outsider's tribute to a kindred outsider spirit. What is most wonderful about the film, a very good one at that, is that it remains true to Moore's stubborn vision. Oh, it brightens things up a little. But essentially it stays true to his persona: A guy who would charm you, entertainment you, and provoke you.
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