Finishing off my little Rudy Ray Moore Binge (well…until someone properly re-releases ‘Shaoulin Dolemite’ and ‘The Dolemite Explosion’ I thought i’d revisit ‘Dolemite is my Name’ A dramatization retelling of Rudy’s early career covering his early days as an assistant manager of a record store, through to his work shaping up ‘Dolemite’ as a character, right the way through to the world premiere of the ‘Dolemite’ movie. With all the crazy and strange happenings that occured along the way.

It is, in essence like the Tim Burton movie ‘Ed Wood’, but instead of it being an aspiring film maker trying to make it big in the 50s, its a comedian trying to make it big in the 70s using records and the movies (neither of which he was particularly creatively refined for at the time)

And I think this ones going to be pretty short but sweet, I really quite enjoyed this one. The script is decently plotted out, with a clear 3 act structure with seamless transitions between the acts. The acts themselves are all nicely weighted, with no one act hogging TOO much of the limelight.

If I was nitpicking, i’d say the film does overrun a little bit (by about 15 minutes) and a lot of that sag is found in the 2nd act, the film kind of gets bogged down a little bit with trying to simultaineously cram in the logistics of how the events unfolded, explaining how some of the weirdness ended up happening, while also trying to portray Rudy as a well intentioned, somewhat timid character who pulls himself out of his shell when faced with adversity. Its essentially trying to juggle all this things AND maintain a healthy balance between comedy and pathos. Not an easy task…And while I Think it does a phenominal job of juggling all of those elements at the same time. it does start to get a little sloppy in the middle when it doesnt really know how to approach some of the subjects that are raised.

Other than some 2nd act pacing and consistency issues though, this is pretty rock solid, the opening takes its time to set up the table for whats about to go down, but once it gets rolling its got an unstoppable and VERY likeable momentum that carries it right the way up to the end.

I think tonally its pretty well tuned, much better than some other biopics of this ilk (im looking at you ‘The Disaster Artist’) and you get the feeling that a lot of research was put into trying to really nail the mannerisms of the characters, their history and motivations, it feels authentic and comes across as genuine, warm and sincere, which I think this movie really needed honestly.

Direction and cine are both rock solid, they recreate several scenes from both ‘Dolemite’ and ‘The Human Tornado’ (which…in itself is another minor nitpick. I love the ‘Dolemite’ recreations, but im the kind of anally retentive person who just cant let go that they showed scenes from ‘The Human Tornado’ during the ‘in film’ ‘Dolemite’ screenings…I’ll live…but im not happy) They do these recreations near enough 1:1, which is incredibly impressive, its a studio picture, so I didnt really have any concerns about this film on a technical level. It doesnt dissapoint really, draping the film in 70s chic, its got great colour choices, solid and creative cinematography, remarkable editing (seriously, I loved the edit on this) and the cast direction is next level. I really cant fault this film, it looks and feels great and has clearly had a lot of love and polish put to it.

as for the performances? Eddie Murphy I feel nails Rudy Ray Moore the person expertly, its a phenominal performance that really captures the more mild mannered aspects of Rudys personality…However; I do feel like Murphy struggles with the ‘Dolemite’ side of the performance, particularly the more anger driven sequences. he just…cant seem to help but slip into a bit more of a ‘comedic angry’ delivery on those scenes…when Rudy did basically just straight anger (which was why it was funny, and why it worked so well in ‘dolemite’) Its only a minor quibble because we spend WAY more of the movie with Rudy (the man) over Rudy (the performer) but it was noticeable enough to raise here.

As for the supporting cast? PERFECT. I honestly dont think i’ve seen a better cast movie than this in a LONG time. With Keegan Michael Key playing Jerry (A writing collaborator to Rudy) with conviction, he’s a great foil to Rudys more short term approach to doing things, and the two bounce off each other wonderfully. The same can absolutely be said of Da’Vine Joy Randolph as Lady Reed, Rudy’s long time partner in crime. they too have tremendous chemistry and her arc through this story is played with conviction thats both satisfying and emotional. Wesley Snipes as D’urville (the director of Dolemite) is near enough perfect, working a solid balance between someone who CLEARLY thinks they’re above the production, but real enough to acknowledge everyone has to start somewhere, he plays pompus, with a vulnerable streak…and he does it very well.

The rest of the supporting cast are equally superb. I dont really think theres a bad one in this entire production. its just a rock solid, entertaining and at times spookily accurate group of performances.

And the soundtrack…DAMN it sounds incredible. we have reworked tracks from ‘Dolemite’ given a bit of 2010s production polish, jukebox motown and funk tracks and a nice incidental suite that really bring the production to life and open the whole thing up to a new level.

I had an absolute blast with ‘Dolemite is my Name’ I enjoyed it the first time around, and I enjoyed it even more on the rewatch. HIGHLY recommended, particularly if you like these ‘lightning in a bottle’ type biopics about eccentric film makers (Like ‘Ed Wood’ or ‘The Disaster Artist’) or want a better idea of Rudy Ray Moore as a person and performer…I dont think you could go far wrong with checking this one out…It looks good, it feels great and it has fantastic story telling told by crazy and creative characters…definitely not one to sleep on.

source https://letterboxd.com/tytdreviews/film/dolemite-is-my-name/1/