Film Forum

U.S., 2019
Directed by Craig Brewer
Starring Eddie Murphy, Wesley Snipes, Da’Vine Joy Randolph, Keegan-Michael Key, Michael Epps, Snoop Dogg
Screenplay by Scott Alexander and Larry Karaszewski
35mm print courtesy Scott Alexander and UCLA Film & Television Archive. Approx. 117 min.

"Murphy plays Rudy Ray Moore, the singer, nightclub comic and proto-rapper who in 1975 produced and starred in the cult blaxploitation comedy Dolemite, based on the outrageously obscene character he’d created for his standup act and bestselling LPs. With never-say-die attitude, Moore battles through his ailing career in its early days: the sometime singer and dancer has an epiphany on seeing a garrulous homeless guy reciting rhyming tales of a legendary character called Dolemite. Like a true artist and born entrepreneur, Moore tape records the man’s shtick, studies it, adapts it for his own club turn, and soon he’s a biggish success as a comedian, shrewdly getting a self-distributed release on vinyl. But he yearns for the movie big time, and hires a producer, Jerry Jones (Keegan-Michael Key), an obstreperous, highly strung director D’Urville Smith (a hilarious role for Wesley Snipes), and a leading lady (Da’Vine Joy Randolph), moreover roping in UCLA film school students to do the hard stuff." — Peter Bradsahw, The Guardian

Reviews

“Has a loose, friendly, house-party vibe... It’s impossible not to have a good time watching the actors have a good time with one another.”
- A.O. Scott, The New York Times

"HUGELY ENTERTAINING AND JOYOUSLY PROFANE, a movie whose spirit is so big the screen can barely contain it."
— Stephanie Zacharek, Time

“Plays like something that was made while on the run, evoking the feel of its subject matter. Its plentiful humor is never bitter or self-mocking, even in its most absurd moments." 
— Odie Henderson, rogerebert.com