While Netflix has some fairly high-profile releases this fall, including new films from Martin Scorsese, Noah Baumbach, Steven Soderbergh, and David Michôd, they will also be bringing much more to festivals, followed by a release on their streaming service. One title that brings anticipation is Dolemite Is My Name, from Hustle & Flow and Black Snake Moan director Craig Brewer, which is premiering at TIFF and the trailer for which has now arrived.
Led by Eddie Murphy, a comedian who attempts a comeback by taking the persona of the much more fly Dolemite. Featuring the epic cast of Keegan-Michael Key, Mike Epps, Craig Robinson, Tituss Burgess, Da’Vine Joy Randolph, Kodi Smit-Mcphee, Snoop Dogg, Ron Cephas Jones, Barry Shabaka Henley, Tip ‘TI’ Harris, Luenell, Tasha Smith, and Wesley Snipes, see the first trailer and poster below.
Stung by a string of showbiz failures, floundering comedian Rudy Ray Moore (Academy Award nominee Eddie Murphy) has an epiphany that turns him into a word-of-mouth sensation: step onstage as someone else. Borrowing from the street mythology of 1970s Los Angeles, Moore assumes the persona of Dolemite, a pimp with a cane and an arsenal of obscene fables. However, his ambitions exceed selling bootleg records deemed too racy for mainstream radio stations to play. Moore convinces a social justice-minded dramatist (Keegan-Michael Key) to write his alter ego a film, incorporating kung fu, car chases, and Lady Reed (Da’Vine Joy Randolph), an ex-backup singer who becomes his unexpected comedic foil. Despite clashing with his pretentious director, D’Urville Martin (Wesley Snipes), and countless production hurdles at their studio in the dilapidated Dunbar Hotel, Moore’s Dolemite becomes a runaway box office smash and a defining movie of the Blaxploitation era.
Dolemite Is My Name premieres at TIFF, hits theaters on October 4, and Netflix on October 25.