biographical A biography, or simply bio, is a detailed description of a person's life. It involves more than just the basic facts like education, work, relationships, and death; it portrays a person's experience of these life events. Unlike a profile or ...

comedy film A comedy film is a category of film which emphasizes humor. These films are designed to make the audience laugh through amusement. Films in this style traditionally have a happy ending (black comedy being an exception). Comedy is one of the ol ...

Craig Brewer Craig Brewer (born December 6, 1971) is an American filmmaker. His 2005 movie ''Hustle & Flow'' won the Audience Award at the 2005 Sundance Film Festival and achieved commercial success, along with an Academy Award for Best Original Song, "It's ...

Scott Alexander and Larry Karaszewski Scott Alexander (born June 16, 1963) and Larry Karaszewski (; born November 20, 1961) are an American screenwriter, screenwriting team. They are best known for writing postmodern biopics with larger-than-life characters. They coined the term " ...

Eddie Murphy Edward Regan Murphy (born April 3, 1961) is an American actor, comedian, writer, producer, and singer. He rose to fame on the sketch comedy show ''Saturday Night Live'', for which he was a regular cast member from 1980 to 1984. Murphy has als ...

Rudy Ray Moore Rudolph Frank Moore (March 17, 1927October 19, 2008), known as Rudy Ray Moore, was an American comedian, singer, actor, and film producer.stand-up Stand-up comedy is a comedic performance to a live audience in which the performer addresses the audience directly from the stage. The performer is known as a comedian, a comic or a stand-up. Stand-up comedy consists of one-liners, stories, ...

blaxploitation Blaxploitation is an ethnic subgenre of the exploitation film that emerged in the United States during the early 1970s. The term, a portmanteau of the words "black" and "exploitation", was coined in August 1972 by Junius Griffin, the president o ...

Dolemite ''Dolemite'' is a 1975 American blaxploitation crime comedy film and is also the name of its principal character, played by Rudy Ray Moore, who co-wrote the film and its soundtrack. Moore, who started his career as a stand-up comedian in t ...

Toronto International Film Festival The Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF, often stylized as tiff) is one of the largest publicly attended film festivals in the world, attracting over 480,000 people annually. Since its founding in 1976, TIFF has grown to become a permane ...

limited release __FORCETOC__ Limited theatrical release is a film distribution strategy of releasing a new film in a few theaters across a country, typically art house theaters in major metropolitan markets. Since 1994, a limited theatrical release in the Unite ...

Netflix Netflix, Inc. is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service and production company based in Los Gatos, California. Founded in 1997 by Reed Hastings and Marc Randolph in Scotts Valley, California, it offers a fil ...

National Board of Review The National Board of Review of Motion Pictures is a non-profit organization of New York City area film enthusiasts. Its awards, which are announced in early December, are considered an early harbinger of the film awards season that culminat ...

77th Golden Globe Awards The 77th Golden Globe Awards honored the best in film and American television of 2019, as chosen by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association. Produced by Dick Clark Productions and the HFPA, the ceremony was broadcast live on January 5, 2020, fro ...

Rudy Ray Moore Rudolph Frank Moore (March 17, 1927October 19, 2008), known as Rudy Ray Moore, was an American comedian, singer, actor, and film producer.LA, trying to get on the air in the in-store radio station. He moonlights as an MC for his friend Ben Taylor and band at a club. Asking the club owner for a comedy time slot, he is turned down. One day, homeless man Ricco wanders into the record store, making loud, rhyming proclamations; one of which includes the name “Dolemite”. (The real Moore recorded a number of prominent street poets, including Big Brown.) Moore creates a stage persona telling stories at the club. Dressing as a pimp and brandishing a cane, he is Dolemite, launching into a crudely humorous and foul-mouthed routine "

The Signifying Monkey ''The Signifying Monkey: A Theory of Afro-American Literary Criticism'' is a work of literary criticism and theory by the American scholar Henry Louis Gates Jr. first published in 1988. The book traces the folkloric origins of the African-Americ ...

". Taylor's group join him on-stage as back up. The crowd applauds. Moore asks his aunt for money to record the comedy album “Eat Out More Often”. His friend Jimmy Lynch records him at his home in front of an audience. Making several copies of the record, Moore sells them out of his car trunk. The record gains popularity, so a record company markets it to record stores. Moore offers to go on tour through the Deep South promoting it. While in Mississippi, he befriends single mother Lady Reed, convincing her to join them. Celebrating the tour's success at a movie, ''

The Front Page ''The Front Page'' is a Broadway comedy about newspaper reporters on the police beat. Written by former Chicago reporters Ben Hecht and Charles MacArthur, it was first produced in 1928 and has been adapted for the cinema several times. Plot The ...

'', the theater's majority-white audience finds the film hilarious but Moore and his friends don't. He is inspired to make a film starring as Dolemite. Turned down by a film executive, Moore asks his record company for an advance on royalties to fund it himself. They agree, warning that, if he fails, he will be in debt to them for the rest of his life. Moore contacts playwright Jerry Jones who, despite initial reluctance, agrees to write the screenplay. Moore and Taylor go to a strip club and find

character actor A character actor is a supporting actor who plays unusual, interesting, or eccentric characters.28 April 2013, The New York Acting SchoolTen Best Character Actors of All Time Retrieved 7 August 2014, "..a breed of actor who has the ability to b ...

D'Urville Martin D'Urville Martin (February 11, 1939 – May 28, 1984) was an American actor in both film and television. He appeared in numerous 1970s movies in the blaxploitation genre. He also appeared in two unaired pilots of what would become ''All in the ...

, offering him a role in the film. Initially offended, Moore gives him the opportunity to direct the film himself. They convert the old, abandoned Dunbar Hotel into a makeshift soundstage. Jones invites a group of white UCLA film students to be the film crew, including Nicholas Josef von Sternberg as cinematographer. Moore, Martin, Jones and crew begin filming ''

Dolemite ''Dolemite'' is a 1975 American blaxploitation crime comedy film and is also the name of its principal character, played by Rudy Ray Moore, who co-wrote the film and its soundtrack. Moore, who started his career as a stand-up comedian in t ...

'', a

kung-fu Chinese martial arts, often called by the umbrella terms kung fu (; ), kuoshu () or wushu (), are multiple fighting styles that have developed over the centuries in Greater China. These fighting styles are often classified according to common ...

-themed

blaxploitation Blaxploitation is an ethnic subgenre of the exploitation film that emerged in the United States during the early 1970s. The term, a portmanteau of the words "black" and "exploitation", was coined in August 1972 by Junius Griffin, the president o ...

film, but Moore's unfamiliarity with

karate (; ; Okinawan language, Okinawan pronunciation: ) is a martial arts, martial art developed in the Ryukyu Kingdom. It developed from the Okinawan martial arts, indigenous Ryukyuan martial arts (called , "hand"; ''tii'' in Okinawan) under the ...

and predilection towards camp disgusts Martin. Despite much of the cast and crew enjoying making the film, he quits soon after filming is completed, but first belittling them, proclaiming the film will never be seen by anyone. Martin's words seem to come true as no film distributor will purchase the film. Moore returns to touring unenthusiastically. In Indiana, asked about the film's release by a local DJ, he remains noncommittal about whether the film will ever be seen. The DJ offers to premiere it in town with enough promotion. Taking him up on it, Moore single-handedly promotes it all around town. Though he spends a lot on

four wall distribution In the film industry, four wall distribution (also known as four-walling) is a process through which a studio or distributor rents movie theaters for a period of time and receives all of the box office revenue. The four walls of a movie theater giv ...

, Moore is pleased to see a massive crowd waiting outside the theater, and the audience greatly enjoys the film. Hollywood film executive

Lawrence Woolner Lawrence Henry Woolner (12 April 1912 – 21 July 1985) was an American film producer, distributor, exhibitor and executive. He worked with Roger Corman on a number of films, helping him found New World Pictures. However he clashed with Corman and ...

, whose studio Dimension Pictures had previously rejected ''Dolemite'', hears about the Indiana premiere. He contacts Moore, promising to distribute the film. Moore arrives at Dimension Pictures dressed as Dolemite with Lady Reed and the crew dressed up as well. The executive says that, although Moore could continue promoting the film himself, he would not see profits right away. However, Dimension Pictures could put the film in theaters and everyone would profit. Moore agrees, beginning to promote it. En route to the Hollywood premiere, Moore and the cast read negative reviews of the film, lowering their spirits. Upon arrival, however, the group is astonished to see an even bigger crowd of people cheering for them outside the theater. While the cast and crew go inside to see the film, Moore stays outside to entertain the crowd who must wait for the next show. Rudy Ray Moore continued to tour and star in sequels to ''Dolemite'' until his death in 2008. Today he's considered to be the "Godfather of Rap".

Cast

Production

Murphy has stated that a biopic of Rudy Ray Moore had long been a dream project for him. Murphy initially met screenwriters

Scott Alexander and Larry Karaszewski Scott Alexander (born June 16, 1963) and Larry Karaszewski (; born November 20, 1961) are an American screenwriter, screenwriting team. They are best known for writing postmodern biopics with larger-than-life characters. They coined the term " ...

in 2003 and they began developing the project. Murphy arranged a meeting between the two writers with Moore, who told him many of his life stories before his death in 2008. However, the early attempts to make the film never came to fruition. On June 7, 2018, it was announced that

Craig Brewer Craig Brewer (born December 6, 1971) is an American filmmaker. His 2005 movie ''Hustle & Flow'' won the Audience Award at the 2005 Sundance Film Festival and achieved commercial success, along with an Academy Award for Best Original Song, "It's ...

would direct ''Dolemite Is My Name'' from a script by

Scott Alexander and Larry Karaszewski Scott Alexander (born June 16, 1963) and Larry Karaszewski (; born November 20, 1961) are an American screenwriter, screenwriting team. They are best known for writing postmodern biopics with larger-than-life characters. They coined the term " ...

with

Netflix Netflix, Inc. is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service and production company based in Los Gatos, California. Founded in 1997 by Reed Hastings and Marc Randolph in Scotts Valley, California, it offers a fil ...

producing and distributing.

Eddie Murphy Edward Regan Murphy (born April 3, 1961) is an American actor, comedian, writer, producer, and singer. He rose to fame on the sketch comedy show ''Saturday Night Live'', for which he was a regular cast member from 1980 to 1984. Murphy has als ...

was set to star as Moore. Later that month, the rest of the principal cast was announced. In July 2018, Chris Rock and

Ron Cephas Jones Ron Cephas Jones (born January 8, 1957) is an American actor. He is best known for his role in the drama series '' This Is Us'' (2016–2022), which earned him four consecutive Primetime Emmy Award nominations, winning twice for Outstanding Gues ...

joined the cast. Principal photography began on June 12, 2018. Nicholas Josef von Sternberg, the director of photography of the original ''Dolemite'', visited the set during filming, and according to Brewer, contributed additional stories that didn't make it into the film.

Release

Theatrical and streaming

''Dolemite Is My Name'' had its world premiere at the

Toronto International Film Festival The Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF, often stylized as tiff) is one of the largest publicly attended film festivals in the world, attracting over 480,000 people annually. Since its founding in 1976, TIFF has grown to become a permane ...

on September 7, 2019. It was released in a

limited release __FORCETOC__ Limited theatrical release is a film distribution strategy of releasing a new film in a few theaters across a country, typically art house theaters in major metropolitan markets. Since 1994, a limited theatrical release in the Unite ...

on October 4, 2019 and digital streaming on October 25, 2019.

Reception

Critical response

On

review aggregator A review aggregator is a system that collects reviews of products and services (such as films, books, video games, software, hardware, and cars). This system stores the reviews and uses them for purposes such as supporting a website where users ...

website

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...

, the film has an approval rating of based on reviews, with an average rating of . The website's critics consensus reads: "In dramatizing Rudy Ray Moore's stranger-than-fiction story, Eddie Murphy makes ''Dolemite Is My Name'' just as bold, brash, and ultimately hard to resist as its subject." On

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that review aggregator, aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted arithmetic mean, weighted average). M ...

, it has a weighted average score of 76 out of 100, based on 39 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews". In ''

Variety Variety may refer to: Arts and entertainment Entertainment formats * Variety (radio) * Variety show, in theater and television Films * ''Variety'' (1925 film), a German silent film directed by Ewald Andre Dupont * ''Variety'' (1935 film), ...

'',

Owen Gleiberman Owen Gleiberman (born February 24, 1959) is an American film critic who has been chief film critic for ''Variety'' magazine since May 2016, a title he shares with . Previously, Gleiberman wrote for ''Entertainment Weekly'' from 1990 until 2014. ...

described Murphy's performance as some kind of a comeback, writing: "As the brash hustler who made ''Dolemite'', Eddie Murphy has his best role in years in a film that's like a blaxploitation answer to ''

The Disaster Artist ''The Disaster Artist: My Life Inside The Room, the Greatest Bad Movie Ever Made'' is a 2013 non-fiction book written by Greg Sestero and Tom Bissell. Sestero details the troubled development and production of the 2003 cult film ''The Room,'' hi ...

''... He plays Rudy as a cheap but priceless carny barker of his own ego." In the ''

Washington Free Beacon ''The Washington Free Beacon'' is an American conservative political journalism website launched in 2012. The website is financially backed by Paul Singer, an American billionaire hedge fund manager and conservative activist. History The ' ...

'',

John Podhoretz John Mordecai Podhoretz (; born April 18, 1961) is an American writer. He is the editor of ''Commentary'' magazine, a columnist for the ''New York Post'', the author of several books on politics, and a former speechwriter for Presidents Ronald ...

compared ''Dolemite Is My Name'' to ''

Ed Wood Edward Davis Wood Jr. (October 10, 1924 – December 10, 1978) was an American filmmaker, actor, and pulp novel author. In the 1950s, Wood directed several low-budget science fiction, crime and horror films that later became cult cla ...

'' as "a tribute to an entrepreneur" and wrote, "Murphy is just glorious here, deserving of an Oscar he almost surely will not get. This is a beautifully and carefully crafted performance in which the greatest comic talent of his generation succeeds in dimming some of his own extraordinary luster to capture Moore's knowing but essential mediocrity."

Accolades

References

External links

* * {{Navboxes , title = Awards for ''Dolemite Is My Name'' , list = {{Black Reel Award for Outstanding Film {{Black Reel Award for Outstanding Ensemble {{Critics' Choice Movie Award for Best Comedy {{NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Independent Motion Picture 2019 films 2019 comedy films 2010s biographical films African-American comedy films American biographical films Biographical films about entertainers Blaxploitation films Comedy films based on actual events Davis Entertainment films English-language Netflix original films Films about filmmaking Films about film directors and producers Films directed by Craig Brewer Films produced by John Davis Films scored by Scott Bomar Films set in the 1970s Films set in Los Angeles Films with screenplays by Scott Alexander and Larry Karaszewski Golden Raspberry Award winning films 2010s English-language films 2010s American films

Plot

Cast

Production

Release

Theatrical and streaming

Reception

Critical response

Accolades

See also

References

External links