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The new Eddie Murphy film, a recent streaming platform feature, isn't his best movie. Nor is it his poorest. It's a project designed to rationalize contracting the 64-year-old to a seventy-million-dollar production deal with the expectation that he might finally be inspired to return to his standup comedy origins and produce the eagerly awaited sequel to his seminal 1987 show his Raw special.

Granted entry to the subject and his archival material bought and paid for, the documentary is at liberty to concentrate on different facets of Murphy's life, opening with indulgent shots of his gothic mansion and its opening ceiling. While the camera marvels at the spoils of his 40-plus year career, he remains at pains to tell the audience that his day-to-day routine isn't much different from theirs: he goes to work, hangs out with his family and falls asleep to MTV's Ridiculousness.

He thinks it is the most humorous program on TV, actually, and would much rather watch continuously that blooper series (which he compares to the filmmaker's experimental work) than reruns of his most famous works.

That would be a bold confession to share even if it wasn't uttered by perhaps the funniest person who has ever lived, and Being Eddie wastes no time in making Murphy's claim to that accolade ironclad.

For confirmation, director Angus Wall starts out by speaking to fellow beneficiaries of large streaming contracts: Chappelle, Chris Rock, Jerry Seinfeld. It's just difficult to digest all this reverence for Murphy from comedians who have grown increasingly out of touch and comfortable with punching down at marginalized groups.

Hero Worship and Intimate Disclosures

The idolization occurs as Murphy heaps praise on Muhammad Ali for giving rise to a foundational generation of high-achieving Black Americans that encompasses Winfrey, Jordan and Barack Obama. Deeper instances follow when Murphy shares about his difficult home life on the island, he lets slip that his first memory in life is of his parents fighting, the whiplash of going from hot comedian to smoldering icon, and the press setting him against Richard Pryor – a comic idol he actually got to direct in the star-studded heist film the movie Harlem Nights.

Informal Analysis and Personal Habits

Wall, the Oscar-winning film editor behind The Social Network and a thriller, displays some layman's analysis in Being Eddie. He persuades the subject to connect his practice of covering the services of his celebrity acquaintances (Foxx, James) to earlier difficulties accepting the passing of his father and stepdad, which generally resulted in an aversion to funerals. He did not attend the service for his sibling the comic Charlie Murphy, who died suddenly of cancer in 2017.

Shrewdly, Being Eddie repurposes some of the more serious outtakes from his brother's Chappelle Show anecdotes to help round out the image of Eddie – who generally dismisses those epic yarns about Rick James and Prince as “a typical evening in my life”. The filmmaker allows Murphy talk about diagnosing himself with obsessive-compulsive disorder – a hidden talent that he attributes with his exceptional powers of observation. But he fails to question the comedian, at least not on film, when Murphy claims to have healed himself with his remarkable capacity of discipline.

Omissions and Debates

The documentary additionally omits other notable milestones in his career: the nineteen ninety-seven arrest of a transgender sex worker who was riding in his vehicle during a traffic stop (the actor maintained he was just being a “good Samaritan”), his two-week media-marriage to film producer Tracey Edmonds, his early denial of the daughter he fathered with former pop star Melanie Brown. Most galling, the feature blows out of proportion of him returning to Saturday Night Live after he spurned the program for decades over gags made at his cost without inviting anyone who was involved in that episode at the time (Spade) or now (Lorne Michaels) on to clarify their side.

Low Point or Turning Point?

The comedian being insulted by the show that turned him into a celebrity is presented as a career nadir in the documentary. But it is hard to believe that notion when even Murphy himself acknowledges that event for prompting him to change tack to projects such as the musical, which earned him an Oscar nomination (albeit one ultimately blocked by his determination on also making the film his comedy Norbit); Shrek, one of the highest-grossing cartoon series of all time; and The Nutty Professor, which saw him raise the benchmark for costuming and impersonations to an impossible height. It turns out the studio was so skeptical about his capability to portray the secondary roles in the film that he was made to try out for every one of the the Klumps parts.

Final Moments and Farewell Presents

Only when you near the end of the film's 103 minutes that it becomes clear why the platform would keep stalling. For a parting gift, the film-makers give Murphy with a pair of dummies crafted to resemble like Richard Pryor and Cosby – a symbolic completion that sprang from him improvising about what his standup act might be like if he were to return to the spotlight immediately. Enough with the teasing, already. Go ahead and perform.

• Being Eddie is currently streaming on the streaming service.