Dolemite Is My Name

— I avoided this film for a while, sensing something inherently worrisome in the title. Eddie Murphy shines as Rudy Ray Moore and, pretty quickly, squelched my fears. I felt a slight twinge at the very beginning when his initial narration reminded me of his SNL Buh Wheat character, but that was just a flash and shifted once things got rolling. Moore is a failed singer/comic who ends up adopting a foul-mouthed, sex-crazed stand-up character called “Dolemite” and, eventually, makes his own, low-budget Dolemite film in the 1970’s Blaxploitation genre, believing the only things his audience wants in a film are comedy, nudity, and kung-fu. The thing that’s interesting is that Murphy resists taking the character to that of a caricature, and the more realistic view makes our view of Blaxploitation a little more difficult 40 years later. Looking at Moore, we’re struck by his focus and his ability to follow his dream and excite others to get on board with him. But we know Blaxploitation films tended to portray black people in unflattering rolls—pimps, drug dealers, prostitutes—and to keep a separation between blacks and whites, but audiences also saw more black people on the screen including some who were heroes or antiheroes (Superfly, Shaft). You have to wonder how the films affected black audiences. Did they mostly cause them to see their futures as pimps and drug dealers, or catch the black power vibe and believe they could be heroes. Did the films only fuel the flames of bigotry for white audiences, or at least introduce them to a world that isn’t only white? “Dolemite” is not a great film even if Murphy’s part in it is great, but the introspection viewer's have can’t help but make us see the past a little differently and maybe broaden our understanding of what we are today. [Netflix streaming.]

---

[2019. 117 min. Directed by Craig Brewer, Starring Eddie Murphy, Keegan-Michael Key, and Mike Epps.]
https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/dolemite-is-my-name-2019