''The One and Only Dick Gregory'' is a 2021 American

documentary film A documentary film or documentary is a non-fictional film, motion-picture intended to "document reality, primarily for the purposes of instruction, education or maintaining a Recorded history, historical record". Bill Nichols (film critic), Bil ...

, directed, written, and produced by Andre Gaines, under his Cinemation Studios banner. It follows the life and career of comedian Dick Gregory. Kevin Hart and Lena Waithe serve as executive producers under their Hartbeat Productions and Hillman Grad Productions, banners, respectively. It had its world premiere at the

Tribeca Film Festival The Tribeca Festival is an annual film festival organized by TriBeCa Productions, Tribeca Productions. It takes place each spring in New York City, showcasing a diverse selection of film, episodic, talks, music, games, art, and immersive progra ...

on June 19, 2021. It was released on July 4, 2021, by

Showtime Showtime or Show Time may refer to: Film * ''Showtime'' (film), a 2002 American action/comedy film * ''Showtime'' (video), a 1995 live concert video by Blur Television Networks and channels * Showtime Networks, a division of Paramount Global w ...

Synopsis

The film follows the life and career of comedian and activist, Dick Gregory. Gregory, Kevin Hart,

Chris Rock Christopher Julius Rock (born February 7, 1965) is an American stand-up comedian, actor, and filmmaker. Known for his work in comic film, television and stage, he has received multiple accolades, including three Grammy Awards for best come ...

, Lena Waithe,

Dave Chappelle David Khari Webber Chappelle ( ; born August 24, 1973) is an American stand-up comedian and actor. He is best known for his satirical comedy sketch series ''Chappelle's Show'' (2003–2006), which he starred in until quitting in the middle of p ...

Wanda Sykes Wanda Yvette Sykes (born March 7, 1964) is an American stand-up comedian, actress, and writer. She was first recognized for her work as a writer on ''The Chris Rock Show'', for which she won a Primetime Emmy Award in 1999. In 2004, ''Entertainm ...

W. Kamau Bell Walter Kamau Bell (born January 26, 1973) is an American stand-up comic and television host. He has hosted the CNN series ''United Shades of America'' since 2016, and hosted FXX television series ''Totally Biased with W. Kamau Bell'' from 2012 ...

Harry Belafonte Harry Belafonte (born Harold George Bellanfanti Jr.; March 1, 1927) is an American singer, activist, and actor. As arguably the most successful Jamaican-American pop star, he popularized the Trinbagonian Caribbean musical style with an interna ...

, Lilian Gregory, Steve Jaffe and Christian Gregory appear in the film.

Release

The film had its world premiere at the

on June 19, 2021. It also screened at AFI Docs on June 24, 2021. It was released on July 4, 2021, by

Critical reception

''The One and Only Dick Gregory'' received positive reviews from film critics. It holds a 100% approval rating 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 ...

, based on 19 reviews, with a weighted average of 8.3/10. The website's consensus reads, "''The One and Only Dick Gregory'' gives its singular subject his due with a comprehensive retrospective and thoughtful commentary, highlighting how the comedy icon's contributions extended far beyond the stage." 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 ...

, the film holds a rating of 79 out of 100, based on eight critics, indicating "generally favorable" reviews.

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:One and Only Dick Gregory, The 2021 documentary films 2021 films American documentary films Documentary films about comedy and comedians Showtime (TV network) documentary films 2020s English-language films 2020s American films