Dolemite Is My Name
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Craig Brewer
Written by	Scott Alexander Larry Karaszewski
Produced by	Eddie Murphy John Davis John Fox
Starring	Eddie Murphy Keegan-Michael Key Mike Epps Craig Robinson Da'Vine Joy Randolph Tituss Burgess Wesley Snipes
Cinematography	Eric Steelberg
Edited by	Billy Fox
Music by	Scott Bomar
Production company	Davis Entertainment
Distributed by	Netflix
Release dates	September 7, 2019 (2019-09-07) (TIFF) October 4, 2019 (2019-10-04) (United States)
Running time	118 minutes[1]
Country	United States
Language	English

Dolemite Is My Name is a 2019 Americanbiographicalcomedy-drama film directed byCraig Brewer and written byScott Alexander and Larry Karaszewski. The film starsEddie Murphy as filmmakerRudy Ray Moore, who is best known for having portrayed the character of Dolemite in both hisstand-up routine and a series ofblaxploitation films, which started withDolemite in 1975.

The film had its world premiere at theToronto International Film Festival on September 7, 2019. It was released in alimited release on October 4, and streaming onNetflix three weeks later.Dolemite Is My Name received positive reception from both audiences and film critics, with praise for Murphy's performance and the humor. It was chosen by both theNational Board of Review andTime magazine as one of the ten best films of the year.^[2][3] At the77th Golden Globe Awards, the film was nominated forBest Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy and Murphy was nominated for theGolden Globe Award for Best Actor – Motion Picture Musical or Comedy.^[4]

Struggling artistRudy Ray Moore works in historic record storeDolphin's of Hollywood in 1970sL.A., trying to get on the air in the in-store radio station. He moonlights as anMC for his friend Ben Taylor and band at a club. Asking the club owner for a comedy time slot, he is turned down.

One day, homeless man Ricco wanders into the record store, making loud, rhyming proclamations; one of which includes the name "Dolemite". (The real Moore recorded a number of prominent street poets, includingBig Brown.)

Moore creates a stage persona telling stories at the club. Dressing as a pimp and brandishing a cane, he is Dolemite, launching into a crudely humorous and foul-mouthed routine "The Signifying Monkey". Taylor's group join him on-stage as back up. The crowd applauds.

Moore asks his aunt for money to record the comedy album "Eat Out More Often". His friend Jimmy Lynch records him at his home in front of an audience. Making several copies of the record, Moore fails to convince major labels to sell it, so he instead sells them out of his car trunk. The record becomes popular through word-of-mouth and gains the attention of theBihari brothers, who strike a deal with Moore to market it to record stores. Moore offers to go on tour through the Deep South promoting it. While in Mississippi, he befriends single mother Lady Reed and convinces her to join him as part of his act in the role of "Queen Bee", the experienced madame to Dolemite's harem of hoes.

Celebrating the tour's success by watching a movie,The Front Page, the theater's majority-white audience finds the film hilarious but Moore and his friends don't. He is inspired to make a film starring Dolemite. Turned down by a film executive from a distribution company promoting otherblaxploitation films, who said he was a bit "doughier" than their other stars, Moore asks his record company for an advance on royalties to fund it himself. They agree but warn him that if he fails, he will be in debt to them for the rest of his life.

Moore contacts playwright Jerry Jones who, despite initial reluctance, agrees to write the screenplay. Moore and Taylor go to a strip club and findcharacter actorD'Urville Martin, offering him a role in the film. Initially offended, Moore persuades him by giving him the opportunity to direct the film himself. They convert the old, abandonedDunbar Hotel into a makeshift soundstage. Jones invites a group of white UCLA film students to be the film crew, including Nicholas Josef von Sternberg as cinematographer.

Moore, Martin, Jones and crew begin filmingDolemite, akung-fu-themedblaxploitation film, but Moore's unfamiliarity withkarate and predilection towards camp disgusts Martin. Despite much of the cast and crew enjoying making the film, he quits soon after filming is completed, but first belittles them, proclaiming the film will never be seen by anyone.

Martin's words seem to come true as no film distributor will purchase the film. Moore returns to touring unenthusiastically. In Indiana, asked about the film's release by a local DJ, he remains noncommittal about whether the film will ever be seen. The DJ offers to premiere it in town with enough promotion. Taking him up on it, Moore single-handedly promotes it all around town. Though he spends a lot onfour wall distribution, Moore is pleased to see a massive crowd waiting outside the theater, and the audience greatly enjoys the film.

Hollywood film executiveLawrence Woolner, whose studioDimension Pictures had previously rejectedDolemite, hears about the Indiana premiere. He contacts Moore, promising to distribute the film. Moore arrives at Dimension Pictures dressed as Dolemite with Lady Reed and the crew dressed up as well. The executive says that, although Moore could continue promoting the film himself, he would not see profits right away. However, Dimension Pictures could put the film in theaters and everyone would profit. Moore agrees, beginning to promote it.

En route to the Hollywood premiere, Moore and the cast read negative reviews of the film, lowering their spirits. Upon arrival, however, the group is astonished to see an even bigger crowd of people cheering for them outside the theater. While the cast and crew go inside to see the film, Moore stays outside to entertain the crowd who must wait for the next show.

Rudy Ray Moore continued to tour and star in sequels toDolemite until his death in 2008. Today he's considered to be the "Godfather of Rap".

Murphy has stated that a biopic of Rudy Ray Moore had long been a dream project for him. Murphy initially met screenwritersScott Alexander and Larry Karaszewski in 2003 and they began developing the project. Murphy arranged a meeting between the two writers with Moore, who told him many of his life stories before his death in 2008.^[7] However, the early attempts to make the film never came to fruition.

On June 7, 2018, it was announced thatCraig Brewer would directDolemite Is My Name from a script byScott Alexander and Larry Karaszewski withNetflix producing and distributing.Eddie Murphy was set to star as Moore.^[8][9] Later that month, the rest of the principal cast was announced.^{[10][11][12][13]} In July 2018,Chris Rock andRon Cephas Jones joined the cast.^[14] Principal photography began on June 12, 2018.^[15] Nicholas Josef von Sternberg, the director of photography of the originalDolemite, visited the set during filming, and according to Brewer, contributed additional stories that didn't make it into the film.^[16]

Dolemite Is My Name had its world premiere at theToronto International Film Festival on September 7, 2019.^[17] It was released in alimited release on October 4, 2019, and digital streaming on October 25, 2019.^[18]

Onreview aggregator websiteRotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 97% based on 233 reviews, with an average rating of 7.9/10. The website's critics consensus reads: "In dramatizing Rudy Ray Moore's stranger-than-fiction story, Eddie Murphy makesDolemite Is My Name just as bold, brash, and ultimately hard to resist as its subject."^[19] OnMetacritic, it has a weighted average score of 76 out of 100, based on 39 critics, indicating "generally favorable" reviews.^[20]

InVariety,Owen Gleiberman described Murphy's performance as some kind of a comeback, writing: "As the brash hustler who madeDolemite, Eddie Murphy has his best role in years in a film that's like a blaxploitation answer toThe Disaster Artist... He plays Rudy as a cheap but priceless carny barker of his own ego."^[21]

• List of black films of the 2010s

• Dolemite Is My Name atIMDb
• Dolemite Is My Name onNetflix

• 2019 films
• 2019 comedy-drama films
• 2010s American films
• 2010s biographical films
• 2010s English-language films
• African-American films
• African-American comedy-drama films
• American biographical films
• Biographical films about entertainers
• Blaxploitation films
• Comedy films based on actual events
• Davis Entertainment films
• English-language biographical films
• Films about film directors and producers
• Films about filmmaking
• Films directed by Craig Brewer
• Films produced by Eddie Murphy
• Films produced by John Davis
• Films scored by Scott Bomar
• Films set in the 1970s
• Films set in Los Angeles
• Films with screenplays by Scott Alexander and Larry Karaszewski
• Netflix original films
• Satellite Award–winning films

• CS1 Serbian-language sources (sr)
• Articles with short description
• Short description matches Wikidata
• Template film date with 2 release dates
• Pages containing links to subscription-only content