{"id":19311,"date":"2019-10-21T17:49:11","date_gmt":"2019-10-22T00:49:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.cinemastance.com\/?p=19311"},"modified":"2019-10-21T17:49:11","modified_gmt":"2019-10-22T00:49:11","slug":"dolemite-is-my-name-is-sweet-genuine-and-appropriately-bawdy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/?p=19311","title":{"rendered":"DOLEMITE IS MY NAME Is Sweet, Genuine and (Appropriately) Bawdy"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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This film premieres on Netflix on October 25th, 2019.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Back in my teenage and college years, this film enthusiast\nspent many a night seeking out and watching the most eccentric and unusual\nfeatures out there. In fact, my friends and I would often try to outdo each\nother, finding and bringing VHS tapes of odd, obscure midnight movies and\nsoon-to-be cult films. One such discovery was Dolemite<\/em> (1975), a bizarre\nand over-the-top-in-every-imaginable-way action\/comedy starring Rudy Ray Moore.\nTo the eyes of someone living in another country, the movie was equal parts\nhilarious, awkward and at points, completely mystifying. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Nearly 45 years later, the story behind this surreal flick has been given the Hollywood treatment. Dolemite Is My Name<\/em> reveals the story of the man who co-created and starred in the film, detailing his struggles getting into show business and attempts to hustle his way into the limelight. Obviously, for this reviewer there\u2019s an element of personal nostalgia in seeing an official take on a crazy movie that my friends and I first found on a store shelf so long ago. Still, it\u2019s hard to imagine anyone not being both charmed and amused by the story being told.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Rudy Ray Moore (Eddie Murphy) has tried just about\neverything to get his big break, including recording his own rhythm & blues\nsingles (which he can\u2019t get any LA disc jockeys to play). When a local\ntransient begins telling outrageously raunchy stories involving a mythical\nfigure, Moore is inspired. He creates an on-stage persona of the character,\nstarts performing in clubs and begins selling records out of his car. Soon, he\nfinds some measure of success and aspires to create a comedy film that will\nserve his audience and sense of humor. However, the process is challenging, as\nthe performer attempts to overcome a series of barriers. To get his unique\nvision up on the big screen, Moore enlists the help of earnest playwright Jerry\nJones (Keegan-Michael Key), and egotistical actor D\u2019Urville Martin (Wesley\nSnipes).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The performances and characters in this underdog story are\nutterly endearing, and Murphy really does a great service to Moore. His\npositive demeanor and enthusiasm make him incredibly likable, but there\u2019s a\ndeeper layer to the man that the actor also manages to uncover. This includes\nan abusive father and some insecurity about his appearance (he\u2019s constantly\ntold that he doesn\u2019t have the looks to be a movie star). The same is true for\nsome of the other roles, including friend and eventual co-star Lady Reed\n(Da\u2019Vine Joy Randolph), who offers some valuable advice when Moore describes\nhis worries about shooting a particular moment in his film. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Of course, there\u2019s even more humor present as the film\ndepicts Moore\u2019s sudden rise to celebrity and attempts to leverage his position\nto the next level. There\u2019s an absolutely hilarious brainstorming session as\nMoore, a man with limited filmmaking or screenwriting experience, fires off\nrandom ideas for the movie with co-writer Jones. And of course, the low-rent\nproduction results in some strange scenarios that certainly earn plenty of\nlaughs. Snipes manages to steal most of his scenes as the heavy-drinking\nactor\/director D\u2019Urville Martin. Stumbling around and full of tics, Martin\nclearly believes himself to be above all of his peer, mixing dismissive and\ndisinterested comments with occasionally inspiring words, sometimes all in the\nsave conversation. He\u2019s a treat to watch.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Credit should also be given to screenwriters Scott Alexander\nand Larry Karaszewski (Ed Wood<\/em>, The People vs. Larry Flynt<\/em>, Man\non the Moon<\/em>, Big Eyes<\/em>) for condensing a life story and managing a\nwide variety of characters, giving many some individual moments to shine. Of\ncourse, based on their other penned works they have a great deal of experience\nin adapting real life stories into narratives \u2013 this title in particular seems\nto share a lot of commonalities with Ed Wood<\/em>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Perhaps the only unfortunate aspect of catching up with the film on Netflix for many will be seeing it for the first time on the small screen. This reviewer was able to see a preview at the cinema. The picture looked impressive and the funky, music-heavy soundtrack was spectacular to hear. Hopefully those watching at home or on a smaller device will be able to appreciate just how well-made it truly is. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the years since, Rudy Ray Moore has been dubbed \u201cThe Godfather of Rap\u201d and has received great accolades and respect for his unusual, if somewhat foul-mouthed work.  While it may seem weird to use Dolemite and the word sweet in the same sentence, Dolemite Is My Name<\/em> is a sweet, genuine and appropriately bawdy ode to a man who wanted nothing more than to make something of himself and refused to give up despite advice to the contrary. And it may also help find him a new generation of fans (for those curious, the 1976 Dolemite<\/em> sequel, The Human Tornado<\/em>, is an even crazier film than the original). It is a film worth seeking out in the best format available.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This film premieres on Netflix on October 25th, 2019. Back in my teenage and college years, this film enthusiast spent many a night seeking out and watching the most eccentric and unusual features out there. In fact, my friends and I would often try to outdo each other, finding and bringing VHS tapes of odd, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":19317,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[197,2789,4660,5041,6017,6018,6019,6020,6021,6251,6703,17418,23321,24108],"class_list":["post-19311","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-movie-reviews","tag-197","tag-biopic","tag-comedy","tag-davine-joy-randolph","tag-dolemite","tag-dolemite-is-my-name","tag-dolemite-is-my-name-film-review","tag-dolemite-is-my-name-movie-review","tag-dolemite-is-my-name-review","tag-drama","tag-eddie-murphy","tag-rudy-ray-moore","tag-true-story","tag-wesley-snipes"],"blocksy_meta":{"styles_descriptor":{"styles":{"desktop":"","tablet":"","mobile":""},"google_fonts":[],"version":8}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19311","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=19311"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19311\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=19311"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=19311"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=19311"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}