Directed by:
Robert TownsendCinematography:
Peter DemingComposer:
Patrice RushenCast:
Robert Townsend, Keenen Ivory Wayans, Helen Martin, Anne-Marie Johnson, Kim Wayans, Conni Marie Brazelton, Rusty Cundieff, Tony Edwards, Grand L. Bush (more)VOD (4)
Plots(1)
This debut feature by Robert Townsend is an ingenious guerrilla satire that takes riotous aim at the typecasting of Black actors in 1980s Hollywood. The writer-director-star’s megawatt charisma propels Hollywood Shuffle, the hilarious tale of a struggling actor attempting to break into an industry where the only roles available to Black performers seem to be hustlers, butlers, slaves, and “Eddie Murphy types”—forcing him to choose between selling out and maintaining his self-respect. Lampooning everything from film noir to zombie flicks to Siskel and Ebert, Townsend and cowriter Keenen Ivory Wayans cannily turn the frustrations of the Black artist into a subversively funny pop-culture critique. (Criterion)
(more)Cast
Robert Townsend
USA
Best movies:
American Flyers (1985)
A Soldier's Story (1984)
Cooley High (1975)
Keenen Ivory Wayans
USA
Best movies:
Scary Movie (2000)
Star 80 (1983)
The Glimmer Man (1996)
Helen Martin
USA
Best movies:
Roots (1977) (series)
Death Wish (1974)
Kiss the Girls (1997)
Anne-Marie Johnson
USA
Best movies:
Ally McBeal (1997) (series)
Adopt a Highway (2019)
True Identity (1991)
Kim Wayans
USA
Best movies:
Floundering (1994)
Hollywood Shuffle (1987)
A Low Down Dirty Shame (1994)
Conni Marie Brazelton
USA
Best movies:
Nuts (1987)
The People Under the Stairs (1991)
Hollywood Shuffle (1987)
Rusty Cundieff
USA
Best movies:
Tales from the Hood (1995)
Hollywood Shuffle (1987)
School Daze (1988)
Tony Edwards
Best movies:
Hot Shots! Part Deux (1993)
Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home (1986)
Starman (1984)
Grand L. Bush
USA
Best movies:
Die Hard (1988)
Lethal Weapon (1987)
Lethal Weapon 2 (1989)
Damon Wayans
USA
Best movies:
The Last Boy Scout (1991)
Beverly Hills Cop (1984)
Punchline (1988)
John Witherspoon
USA
Best movies:
Bird (1988)
The Jazz Singer (1980)
House Party (1990)
Steve James
USA
Best movies:
Mask (1985)
The Warriors (1979)
The Player (1992)
Robert R. Shafer
USA
Best movies:
Echo Park (1985)
Monster Man (2003)
Hollywood Shuffle (1987)
Jim Beaver
USA
Best movies:
The Boys (2019) (series)
Magnolia (1999)
The Life of David Gale (2003)
Eugene Robert Glazer
USA
Best movies:
Vendetta (1986)
Stand and Deliver (1988)
It's My Party (1996)
Carl Craig
Best movies:
Hollywood Shuffle (1987)
I'm Gonna Git You Sucka (1988)
Franklyn Ajaye
USA
Best movies:
The Jazz Singer (1980)
The 'Burbs (1989)
Get Crazy (1983)
Paul Mooney
USA
Best movies:
Bustin' Loose (1981)
The Buddy Holly Story (1978)
Bamboozled (2000)
Starletta DuPois
USA
Best movies:
The Notebook (2004)
Death Wish (1974)
Wolf (1994)
Nick Stewart
USA
Best movies:
Zombies on Broadway (1945)
Follow the Boys (1944)
Night and Day (1946)