FILM

Golden age

The Golden Age of Eddie Murphy Cinema occurred between the years of 1982 and 1988 with the release of such classics as 48 Hrs., Trading Places, Beverly Hills Cop and Coming to America.

Since ’88, he’s had his moments (Dreamgirls, Life, The Nutty Professor) but he’s had plenty more duds. His regrettable forays into “family entertainment,” while including his enjoyable voice work in Shrek films, also included dreck like The Haunted Mansion, Daddy Day Care and Imagine That. And then, of course, there was Vampire in Brooklyn. Still recovering from that one.

It was as if Eddie, the magical movie comedian, went into hiding for over three decades.

Dolemite Is My Name is a movie that can stand side by side with the best of Murphy’s Golden Age. A consistently funny biopic honoring comedian-actor Rudy Ray Moore, it’s clear that Murphy’s heart is in this project full force. It’s the best performance he’s ever delivered in a movie … period.

The film takes us on a tour of Moore’s rise to fame, starting with the creation of his Dolemite character (a campy hybrid of Shaft and Huggy Bear from Starsky and Hutch), and his poetically profane comedy albums. Moore mixed profanity with rhyming in ways that have earned him a “godfather of rap” moniker, with rap giants like Snoop Dogg, who appears in this film as a record store DJ, saying they wouldn’t have careers if not for Moore. Clearly, Moore helped lay the groundwork for the likes of Murphy and his standup greatness as well.

Which makes it all the more appropriate that Eddie headlines this movie. Murphy, playing Moore, finds himself very much occupying a prototypical Eddie Murphy movie like those from his early days. It’s consistently funny and powered by Murphy’s infectious charisma.

Murphy is commanding in a way that, quite frankly, I forgot he was capable of. Whether he’s recreating some terrible Kung Fu antics, or reacting uncomfortably on the phone as a studio guy rejects his movie, Murphy shows that he indeed remains one of the greatest screen talents. I now must make this perfectly clear: Murphy is awesome in this movie.

Craig Brewer, directing from a script by Scott Alexander and Larry Karaszewski, captures the look of the ’70s with big collared shirts, pimp hats and fat furs. The recreations of the actual Dolemite movie— currently available for streaming on Amazon and, let me also make this clear, glorious on all fronts—are hilariously accurate.

Brewer also captures the essence of Eddie Murphy, an extremely confident comedic performer with a lot happening under the surface. The man doesn’t hit a false note in this movie, showing us a brash comic who rises to fame on the wings of the best dirty jokes in the land and an undying desire to be famous.

Helping things mightily is a supporting cast that includes Craig Robinson, Mike Epps, Keegan-Michael Key and, most wonderfully, Wesley Snipes in a scenestealing role as original Dolemite director, D’Urville Martin. Snipes—who looks like a day hasn’t passed since White Men Can’t Jump, and it’s just not fair— hasn’t had an opportunity to shine like this in decades, and this film marks his grand return to form as well. He’s a total crackup in the role.

As for the return of Murphy, this is just the start. He’s currently working on sequels to Coming to America, also directed by Brewer, and Beverly Hills Cop, preparing for a return to Saturday Night Live as host—he’s going to do Gumby and Buckwheat again!—and, most incredibly, a proposed return to the standup stage. If Dolemite Is My Name is any indication, he hasn’t lost a step, and we could see a Second Golden Age of Murphy. (Dolemite Is My Name is streaming on Netflix during a limited theatrical release.) Ω

“What do you mean my jacket looks like an apple pie?”

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2Downton Abbey This movie is a mess, although it’s the sort of mess a true fan might be willing to tolerate. Director Michael Engler seems to be working with enough subplots in this movie to fuel an entire season of the former TV show. The big plot twist here is that King George V (Simon Jones) and Queen Mary (Geraldine James) are coming to Downton Abbey, a big estate with a reasonably sized staff, for a quick visit during one of their tours. So the staff, taken a bit by surprise, must prepare for a visit from the royal family. Much of this movie is staff running around trying to prepare for this visit. In fact, the first half of this movie is almost entirely about preparing for the visit. That’s the main thrust of the movie. In the background, there are all sorts of little affairs and plot threads that even the most hardcore fans might have a hard time keeping track of. There’s even a blink-and-you-will-miss-it assassination plot involving King George that just sort of happens, without any attention to anything resembling details. Hey, a movie where King George V almost gets assassinated should be at least slightly exciting.

4El Camino: A Breaking Bad Movie Breaking Bad, one of the greatest TV series of all time, ended six years ago. Since then, series creator Vince Gilligan has been serving up a nice extension of the Breaking Bad universe with Better Call Saul, soon to air its fifth season. If you’ve never seen Breaking Bad, and still plan to watch the show, do not read further into this review. There are spoilers. Since Saul is a prequel, the Breaking Bad timeline came to a stop six years ago, and the universe has been playing around in the past. So, what happened to Jesse Pinkman (Aaron Paul) after Walter White (Bryan Cranston) liberated him from captivity at that American Nazi compound? When last we saw Jesse, he was looking like John the Baptist and speeding off into the night, laugh-crying hysterically. Knowing full well that the fanbase is itching for more Jesse, El Camino: A Breaking Bad Movie has made its way to Netflix. The film picks up where the Breaking Bad series left off, with Jesse in a pinch as “a person of interest” after the White assault, and still very much in need of a shave and a shower. It’s a great thing to see Paul back in his wheelhouse as Pinkman, even if the character has become a bit dour after the hell of being held prisoner in a hole in the ground. Jesse’s screen time during his captivity on the TV show was limited as the story, logically, focused primarily on Walter White’s last days. El Camino gives Gilligan and Paul a chance to flashback and explore some strange adventures Jesse had with his captor, the quietly evil Todd (Jesse Plemons).

2Joker This new take on DC’s Clown Prince of Crime will go down as one of the year’s big missed opportunities. Director Todd Phillips, mostly known for his Hangover movies, apparently got the green light to do whatever he wanted with the Joker mythos. Phillips blows this chance. Phoenix is otherworldly good as Arthur Fleck, a severely troubled clown and standup comedy wannabe—and mama’s boy—with a condition that causes him to laugh uncontrollably at inappropriate moments. He physically and mentally disappears into the part, to the point where you may become concerned for the actor’s well-being. When we first see Fleck, he’s dressed as a clown, spinning a sign and generally having a good time. He promptly gets his ass kicked, and not for the last time. We then see him in therapy and living in poverty with his quirky mother (Frances Conroy). Fleck slowly but surely starts to lose all sense of his humanity as he grows into a criminal monster. Phillips even casts a game Robert De Niro to play a talk show host that winds up being a nod to Miller’s David Letterman riff (David Endocrine) in The Dark Knight Returns. At its most derivative, the screenplay echoes A Beautiful Mind, filmed in a way that feels like a hackneyed Shyamalan twist. In the end, it’s an unoriginal film only partially buoyed by an incredible performance. 2The Laundromat Normally reliable director Steven Soderbergh delivers a mess of a movie filled with Oscar-caliber talent and an unfocussed sense of purpose. Dealing with a reallife scandal that included insurance fraud and the aftermath of a terrible boating accident in Lake George, New York, a cast including Meryl Streep, Gary Oldman and Antonio Banderas is squandered as the movie undergoes one discordant tonal shift after another. Soderbergh starts the movie off well—the boating accident is chillingly filmed—but then the movie makes some odd choices, including Oldman and Banderas playing a couple of lawyers who break the fourth wall and narrate the film. The movie strives to be clever, but ultimately lacks an original idea on how to focus on its subject matter and come up with something compelling rather than confusing. Props to Streep, who is excellent as a passenger on the ill-fated boat trying to receive insurance compensation. Streep has more than one surprise up her sleeve in this movie. Adam McKay made The Big Short a few years ago, and some films have been trying to capture the darkly comic, reallife vibe of that one. They’ve been trying and failing, and this one tanks quickly. (Streaming on Netflix during a limited theatrical release.)

4Living With Yourself In this latest Netflix series, Miles (Paul Rudd), a bored-out-of-his-mind advertising executive, takes a cue from a chirpy coworker and stops by a spa for some sort of rejuvenation clinic. That night, when he returns home, he’s much peppier with a sunny outlook. Only problem is, the peppy, sunnier Miles is a clone, and the original version of Miles is still running around. Creator Timothy Greenberg and directors Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris deliver a fun, twisted eight-episode season that feels like a long movie, and Rudd gets a chance to show off both his dramatic and comedic chops. The chance to take a character and play two versions of him at the same time is a challenge that the actor is more than up to, and the results are thoroughly entertaining. Also terrific is Aisling Bea, as wife Kate, who has herself a real dilemma on her hands when she finds out her husband’s predicament. What do you do when your marriage has gone sour and a rejuvenated, charming version of your spouse shows up to party? This is being called a series, but it’s hard to imagine they’ll do more because this ends on such a perfect note. Still, if they choose to continue, with Rudd and Bea on board, worse things could happen. (Streaming on Netflix.)

3Zombieland: Double Tap Since the release of the first Zombieland back in 2009, much has happened in the entertainment land of the undead. A decade later, Emma Stone has an Oscar for La La Land, Woody Harrelson got his third nomination in that stretch, and Jesse Eisenberg was nominated for The Social Network. Abigail Breslin also had an Oscar nom before the first film for Little Miss Sunshine. With all of this Oscar business, might this crew of performers opt for more snobby fare rather than blowing up ghoul skulls for laughs? Nope, director Ruben Fleischer returns with the whole crew—shockingly—intact for Zombieland: Double Tap, a film that does little to reinvigorate the genre, but still delivers plenty of laughs. It’s basically the same as the first movie, but with some more laughs thanks to a new costar. The zombie killers have taken up residence in the White House, with Wichita (Stone) and Columbus (Eisenberg) in a relationship that requires them to cover up the eyes on the Lincoln portrait when they bed down at night. Columbus has his sights set on marriage, while Wichita still has some commitment issues. Tallahassee (Harrelson) is still searching for Twinkies with a new goal to visit Graceland while leaving shredded zombies in his wake, while Little Rock (Breslin) wouldn’t mind having her first boyfriend ever at the age of 22. it all becomes a road trip again, one that eventually leads to Graceland—sort of—and a commune called Babylon. It’s a basic sequel with enough laughs and genre fun to earn a look. 10.31.19 | RN&R | 17