Dolemite is My Name, or How Eddie Murphy Got His Groove Back, is one of those movies about a bunch of guys who don’t know how to make a movie making a movie. Craig Brewer’s biopic of industrious comedian-turned-actor/producer Rudy Ray Moore shares similar broad strokes to James Franco’s The Disaster Artist in that capacity but the flavor here is unmistakably ebony. Also, there is much clearer deference to the film’s subject and his undeniable talents.

Dolemite is My Name revels in the emergence of blacksploitation and from the pimped out costumes to the inner-city lingo to the musical cadence of the language, this is a film that lives and breathes blackness. And yet, Brewer’s film remains an accessible entry point for audiences of all colors and backgrounds, even those with no knowledge of the hard-hustling comedian and his importance within black film culture in the 1970s and 80s.

Murphy is centerstage as Rudy Ray Moore and much of the conversation regarding Dolemite up to this point has been centered around his performance. And for good reason. Murphy had all but fallen off the face of the Earth following a disastrous run of crash-and-burn films and endless Shrek sequels but in Dolemite is My Name, the irreverent icon of the 80s comes roaring back to life, leaving this particular watcher thinking: where the hell has this Eddie Murphy been the past two decades? Dolemite Is My Name avoids cradle-to-grave biographical stylings but still stuffs a whole lot of biopic-friendly transformation into its two-hour runtime. From the first time we meet Moore, he’s hustling. Pushing a DJ (played by Snoop Dogg) to give his 45 just a wee bit of airtime. When Moore pivots his approach and records an explicit comedy album that combines street storytelling, Afro-centric grooves, and proto-hip-hop rhyme structure, he creates a kind of comedy-musical hybrid that had never really existed before. And the crowd goes wild.

Forced to sell his work out of the back of his car trunk when no labels agree to release the album, Moore uses word of mouth and his dynamic personality to find adoring audiences. His star rises when the unique black-market vinyl becomes popular within African American communities around the country. But Moore’s dreams don’t stop with records and when he sees a gap that needs filling – black-friendly comedy films – he decides it will be him and his friends who do the filling. 

Boasting a talented cast that includes Keegan-Michael Key, Wesley Snipes, Craig Robinson, Da-Vine Joy Randolph, Mike Epps, Tituss Burgess, Chris Rock, Kodi Smit-McPhee and Bob Odenkirk, Dolemite is My Name cherishes and celebrates community, emphasizing the importance of camaraderie and bootstrapping in this amateur moviemaking business of theirs. But this is Murphy’s bag through and through and his supporting cast mostly just step out of the way to let the spotlight shine glory down upon him. 

It is a little bit odd that director Craig Brewer, a white dude, has made a name of himself telling stories about black culture, but he continues to capitalize on that here. The Hustle & Flow writer/director has directed a number of episodes of Empire and is attached to helm Murphy’s long-awaited Coming 2 America so African-American culture is no stranger to the Tennessee native but he does seem like a bit of an unexpected fit for a movie that so wholly embraces its essential blackness.

This is a movie about black culture, black culture finally finding a voice in American cinema, and black audiences finally connecting with people that look like them on the screen. It’s also told with a predominantly black cast. And yet…most of the crew seems white as a ghost. A fact that seems doubly strange when you realize that the two writers, Larry Karaszewski and Scott Alexander, are also as pearly white as a glass of cold milk. Something I find a bit off-colored (please don’t mind the pun.) 

That bit of cognitive dissonance aside, the film itself is a bit of a mixed bag. Murphy is excellent and there are a share of zinging comical moments and thoughtful relationships constructed between characters but there’s nothing especially moving or out-of-control funny about any of this. As a single-serving and entertaining distraction and crash-course on Rudy Ray Moore, Dolemite is exactly what the doctor ordered and perfectly suited to its Netflix platform but this is hardly a film that I’ll find myself thinking about probably ever again.

CONCLUSION: See ‘Dolemite is My Name’ for the Eddie Murphy performance that has everyone talking but don’t expect the somewhat uninspired film to be all that much more than a strong reminder of the once-popular actor’s massive talents. 

B-

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