Review: "Dolemite is My Name" Serves as One of the Best Comeback Narrative of the Decade

Scene from Dolemite is My Name

For several generations, there was nothing as reliable as a new Eddie Murphy movie. From his breakout roles post-Saturday Night Live to the 2000s, he was known for producing some of the most successful comedies, regardless of how well they were actually received. It's what has made the past eight years a bit of an odd period for him. After seemingly producing multiple hits a year, he has spent most of the decade in silence, producing only five films compared to triple that in the previous period. He hasn't had a major hit since 2011's Tower Heist and everything since has looked doubtful that he would ever have that return to power. 

That is exactly what makes director Craig Brewer's Dolemite is My Name such a fascinating project. Much like Dreamgirls before, Murphy has often been at his best when something feels personal about his work. In this case, it's easy to see what draws him to blaxploitation icon Rudy Ray Moore. Both were vulgar comedians who appealed to the masses with profane catchphrases and ignoring everything a conventional performer would. Murphy in some ways has come full circle in the process, managing to feel like Moore because of his recent fallow period. He's older, may be seen by some as irrelevant, and it's exactly now that he needs to prove himself to a new public. Much like Moore with the iconic Dolemite, Murphy uses the biopic to explore how artists strive when nobody believes in them, creating a vision that reminds us that it isn't about age or looks, but the passion to create art no matter what. It's what helps to make this one of the greatest comeback metaphors of the decade.

There is a scene early in the film that puts everything into context for Dolemite is My Name. Moore is sitting in a theater with his friends preparing to watch Billy Wilder's The Front Page. The house is laughing, enjoying the antics of Jack Lemmon and Walter Matthau. All that Moore could think is that this world of white screwball comedy is foreign to him. It makes no sense, nothing was funny. They were better off seeing Blackenstein, which lacked the critical acclaim but the audience can already tell fits Moore's sensibilities a lot better. Even then, The Front Page failing to even make Moore smirk leads to him desiring to make his own film, where his name is on the marquee and his image is on the posters. He's dominated stand-up comedy and party records, why couldn't he do the same for a film as well?

It makes sense that this was co-written by Scott Alexander and Larry Karaszewski. The duo has written some of the greatest biopics of 20th-century provocateurs ranging from Larry Flynt, Andy Kaufman, Margaret Keane, to the perfect analog for Dolemite is My Name: Ed Wood. While decades and genres separate Wood from Moore, both serve as the starving artist wishing to pursue a vision beyond their talents. It's true that Moore is hilarious on stage, but a filmmaker he is not. Without sacrificing a deeper sense of dignity, Alexander and Karaszewski's screenplay manages to hit a lot of the high notes of how Dolemite came to be. There's a sex scene where the roof literally falls on top of Moore as someone unnaturally shakes the bed just out of the camera. It's b-movie material made on the fly, with it largely shot at "Dolemite Studios," which is essentially an abandoned hotel-turned-crack addict hangout with faulty wiring. Nobody believes that they can pull it off, but Moore does.

Like Ed Wood, Dolemite is My Name revels in humor pulled from cheap productions running into constant trouble. However, it also finds time to understand why these artists are even doing it in the first place. While Dolemite helped make Moore "The Godfather of Hip Hop," many scholars would argue that the film is crafted poorly. Which raises the question: is Moore making Dolemite to be loved by the same audience who finds The Front Page funny? Not. One. Bit. He sets out to give himself a representation. The elder statesmen in black films are often sanitized for mainstream audiences. Moore wants pimps and martial arts-fighting women. He wants a world that no reasonable studio would back, in large part because they believe that Moore only appeals to a two-block radius of fans. It won't make them any money. By the end, any success he has isn't because he created The Godfather of blaxploitation movies. It's because he stuck to what he believed in and found that his audience was bigger than he ever thought.

It's one of those empowering stories that works because of how ridiculous it is. While Brewer doesn't stylistically dive too much into the blaxploitation aesthetic, he does make the behind the scenes comedy a delightful piece of the puzzle. Much like Ed Wood, both films have core set pieces that are hard to forget. It helps that this is Murphy giving his all in a way that hasn't been seen in over a decade. He gets on stage and tells a dirty joke. The audience laughs. It's pure comedy magic, and you buy it because Murphy did that with Raw. He pushed boundaries and gained similar notoriety, albeit with more success. It's likely why he's so comfortable in this role and makes simple acts like smiling at the camera feel reminiscent of his best work on a film. This is as much a reminder of why we love Murphy as it is an ode to Moore becoming an unlikely movie icon. It helps that a lot of the supporting cast are great comedians that play very well into the sensibilities of the film.

As suggested, it's among the more profane biopics of any major studio this decade. Moore by nature would've loved that, especially as he envisioned an unreasonable amount of sex and violence. It's infectious because it's hard to tell if he was doing it for his art, or if he really was living out a fantasy of a man 20 years his junior. Thankfully, all of the absurdity holds together nicely and will introduce a new generation to Dolemite while proving that Murphy was ever more than Donkey from Shrek. He is capable of leading a film, performing crass routines that may make it hard for some to take his Oscar campaign seriously, and also adding a sense of catharsis at the end. This is all a story about a man wanting to be seen and finding it difficult to get there. It may fall occasionally into typical biopic territory, but by the end, it's a showcase for why artists pursue their vision in the first place. It's an inspiring story and one that will hopefully not go ignored during Netflix's exhaustive Oscar campaign this Fall.

Dolemite is My Name does a great job of introducing mainstream audiences to a blaxploitation icon. With Murphy giving one of his best performances in some time, the story comes to life with so much humor and personality that it's hard to ignore. Every moment is either too insane to exist or too personal to not justify the latter. Everything about the film feels like a perfect introduction to one of the cinema's overlooked genres, showing the struggle of black artists through the guise of Moore. So much of the film gets by on personality, of people standing around and ribbing each other. They all do it out of love and hope that the next project will get them seen. If this is as big of a success as Netflix hopes, maybe Murphy will get that wish for his own career, too.