Dolemite Is My Name
2019
****
Director: Graig Brewer
Cast: Eddie Murphy, Da'Vine Joy Randolph, Keegan-Michael Key, Mike Epps, Craig Robinson, Tituss Burgess, Wesley Snipes
Inspired by the local Los Angeles street poets, a wannabe comedian Rudy Ray Moore creates a stage persona named Dolemite, whose foul-mouthed rhymes become a hit. To introduce his character to a wider audience, Rudy bets his financial future on a Dolemite movie. This very enjoyable and refreshingly light-hearted autobiographical comedy does not tell your typical tale of a show business star who succumbs to a life of excess. I don't know how close to the truth this is, but Rudy is portrayed as an extremely driven but warm-hearted and unselfish entertainer, who never forgets where he comes from or who helped him to get where he is. As a filmmaker, Rudy is enthusiastic but untalented, much like Ed Wood, whose story was also written by Scott Alexander and Larry Karaszewski, who have scripted several biographical stories. The cast is excellent: Eddie Murphy gives one of his best performances in the lead and Wesley Snipes appears in a hilarious cameo as the movie's director D'Urville Martin.
