A few nights ago I randomly started watching 'Dolemite is My Name,' another Netflix production. I heard it was a top 10 film of 2019 (probably from Sonny Bunch) but really knew nothing about it, and I'm guessing most people in my life don't either. With an essentially all black cast and a premise around dirty humor I didn't know what I was getting into. It really was great, if you can get over a whole lot of language and some nudity.
Rudy Ray Moore is a middle aged black man (played by Eddie Murphy) living in LA in the early 70s. He moved there some 20 years prior just wanting to become famous but now toiled in a record store and as an MC at a local club. He was going nowhere. Then an idea. Taking the crazy stories of some local hobos, built largely on jokes spread via word of mouth, he polished them up and created a persona. As Dolemite, he dressed eccentrically and told foul-mouthed and obscene stories using rhythm and rhyme. He was an overnight hit and soon made a record. Due to the nature of his act, he struggled to sell it through distributors. This was a theme. He continued betting on himself and word got out. After more records and a tour, he wanted more. He'd make a movie and put himself in front of the world.
I stopped for the night. It was a funny and largely enjoyable film even with my limited knowledge about urban life in the 70's and black comedy and film. Then I learned that Rudy Ray Moore was a real person, and this is largely a true story. I have to guess a whole lot of the details are made up, but the major ones happened. This helped me enjoy the film considerably more going forward. Well, that and the fact that Eddie Murphy was fantastic.
They started to make a movie. They didn't have much money or good equipment or know what they were doing. Rudy didn't know a thing about kung-fu but his character would do it. What he did know was humor, and humor that his target audience would eat up. What they completed was undoubtedly a terrible film, by any objective standard. He persevered.
He got famous. Supposedly he's also credited as being the 'Godfather of Rap.' It's all a crazy story, one a white suburban millennial like me knew nothing about, turned into a hilarious film. The movie they made actually exists (plus several sequels!) and is even on Prime.
After perusing Wikipedia I loved John Podhoretz's quote: "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."
Yeah, I'll stick with this film. No need to see the old one.
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