Dolemite Is My Name

Eddie Murphy (Beverley Hills Cop, Shrek) is Rudy Ray Moore, an actor who moved to LA to follow his dreams of being famous, but has somehow ended up working in a record store, regularly begging his manager (and local radio station manager) to play his music on the air. His regular stand-up comedy slot brings him few laughs and gets him nowhere, and he’s already thousands in debt to his aunt for all the hare-brained schemes he’s had that didn’t pan out…

However, he has a new plan! There’s a hobo who regularly frequents his record store, spinning tall tales that get more and more fantastic every time he tells them. Rudy plans to create a stage persona ‘Dolemite’ and tell these outrageous tales in rhyming verse, with plenty of ‘cussing’, record this and sell it on records. However, this was back in the 1970s when the music industry tried to avoid controversy rather than milking it to market records, so Rudy has to sell these himself from the back of his car. Demand is high, yet record companies are unwilling to finance a film based on his Dolemite character, so Rudy has to keep pouring in more money and raising the stakes higher and higher in one last big gamble for fame…

With a strong supporting cast of Craig Robinson (Brooklyn Nine Nine, The Office), Da’Vine Joy Randolph (Empire, Office Christmas Party), Keegan-Michael Key (Parks and Recreation, Toy Story 4), cameos by Wesley Snipes, and Snoop Dogg, and some laugh-out-loud moments, this is well worth a watch!

Gail Marshall