Dolemite Is My Name

Rudy Ray Moore was in his forties, working in a record shop, and nothing he tried was landing. Out of rhyming stories he heard on the street he built a character called Dolemite, pressed his own records independently, and in 1975 made his own film. Eddie Murphy chased the project for years. His first meeting with writers Scott Alexander and Larry Karaszewski goes back to 2003, and he spoke to Moore himself before his death in 2008. The same pair had written Ed Wood, and both films are about stubbornness rather than talent. Craig Brewer directed. Ruth E. Carter designed the costumes and drew separate attention for the period work. It premiered at Toronto on 7 September 2019, opened in limited release on 4 October and reached Netflix on 25 October. Rotten Tomatoes sits at 97 percent, with a consensus that Murphy makes the film as bold, brash and hard to resist as its subject. It took Golden Globe nominations for Best Picture in the musical or comedy category and Best Actor, won Best Comedy at the Critics' Choice Awards, and several Black Reel Awards. Who it is for: anyone interested in independent production and the blaxploitation era. Who it is not for: viewers put off by crude language. The film does not sand down Moore's act, and softening it would have been pointless.