Netflix Review - Dolemite is My Name (15)

It's comedy and it's sexy and it's action. It's a total entertainment experience!

The Gist: Eddie Murphy plays Rudy Ray Moore, aspiring recording artist and comedian, who in 1970s Los Angeles finds himself sorting vinyl in a Hollywood record store and and dying nightly on stage at a local bar, his best years apparently behind him. That's until he hits on his Big Idea - take the raw street poetry of the bums on a nearby block and turn it into a stage act, transforming himself into pimp-raconteur Dolemite. The new material is a lewd and riotous hit, as is his strutting new character, and recordings of his performance sold out of his car trunk also become a cult success. But Rudy thinks bigger. Inspired by the Blaxspoitation movies of the era, he decides that Dolemite will appear in a sexy action feature of his own. That's despite a complete lack of knowledge of the film industry. But with enthusiasm, half-baked plans and can-do attitude, all kinds of things prove possible...

The Juice: With Moore now referred to as the 'godfather of rap', it's no wonder that Snoop Dogg agreed to cameo in this story of the man's truly American rise to fame. Dolemite is My Name is as rude and raucous as the Moore's original comedy albums clearly were, but is also a warm and grin-inducing story of the little guy challenging the odds that the system has stacked against him. Craig Brewer's film immerses us in the vibrant black culture of 1970s LA and serves as a timely reminder that this whole other world existed then apart from the Hollywood mainstream - one that was eager to embrace the 'Dolemite' phenomenon. Murphy, whose presence reminds us of his 1999 team-up with Steve Martin in Bowfinger (a fictional story of heroically cut-price film-making), is on the finest of form - both as the hangdog Rudy whose desperation makes you cringe, and as the larger-then-life, cheer-worthy character into which he transforms himself. This is far from a one-man show, however. There's back-up in the form of lusty character turns, including from Da'Vine Joy Randolph as Moore's jaded but warmly loyal bar-singer friend Lady Reed and Wesley Snipes as preening actor-director D'Urville Martin. And Keegan-Michael Key was born to express the exasperation of playwright Jerry Jones, reluctantly persuaded on board to co-write a screenplay for a man whose idea of good plotting includes an all-girl kung fu army. 

The Judgement: 8/10. Dolemite (both this biopic and the movie character/franchise from which it takes its name) is a slice of American cultural life I didn't know I needed to know about, one replete with seamy humour, but bubbling with noisy, joyful life. The movie-with-in-a-movie element is at points uneasily reminiscent of Ed Wood and The Disaster Artist, i.e. you sense that our feature-making hero is destined for failure and ridicule, only sensitive enough to be crushed by both. In fact you end up liking him so much that you're downright fearful of it. But Moore isn't just another deluded fame-seeker. There's grit and shrewdness behind his ambition and a sense for an iron that's red-hot for striking. If you start out feeling sorry for him, soon you're laughing with him and rooting for the guy to achieve all his ridiculous dreams. Despite its frequently implausible nature, the Dolemite story happened in all its tawdry glory. This film is a brash and hilariously funny celebration of the fact.