Hollywood Shuffle (1987)
3.5 of 5 from 48 ratings
1h 18min
- General info
- Available formats
- Synopsis:
- Actor wannabe Bobby Taylor (Townsend) dreams of landing a role...any role. But in a town where the best black roles are usually jive-talkin' gangsta stereotypes, Bobby learns that you have to make your own parts - even if they're just in your head. Spoofing everything from Michael Jackson's "Thriller" and Eddie Murphy to Siskel & Ebert, Bobby's vivid imagination - and Hollywood Shuffle
- Actors:
- Robert Townsend, Craigus R. Johnson, Helen Martin, Starletta DuPois, Marc Figueroa, Sarah Kaite Coughlan, Sean Michal Flynn, Brad Sanders, David McKnight, Keenen Ivory Wayans, Lou B. Washington, John Witherspoon, Anne-Marie Johnson, Don Reed, Kim Wayans, Gregory 'Popeye' Alexander, Conni Marie Brazelton, Lorrie Marlow, Sena Ayn Black, Lisa Mende
- Directors:
- Robert Townsend
- Producers:
- Carl Craig, Richard Cummings Jr., Robert Townsend
- Writers:
- Robert Townsend, Keenen Ivory Wayans, Dom Irrera
- Aka:
- Robert Townsend's Hollywood Shuffle
- Genres:
- Comedy
- Collections:
- A History of Films about Film: Part 1, A Brief History of Film...
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Reviews (1) of Hollywood Shuffle
Still Shuffling - Hollywood Shuffle review by griggs
I’d come for a comedy — just didn’t expect this shape of one. Robert Townsend’s 1987 debut unspools as a string of vignettes and sketches skewering the Black Hollywood experience, shuffling between targets: typecasting, agents chasing an “Eddie Murphy type”, “jive-talk” auditions.
Uneven in the way sketch comedy tends to be, but the hit rate’s high and the satire cuts uncomfortably close — the weaker bits drift, the sharper ones land with a wince. That’s the depressing punchline.
Hollywood Shuffle plays less like a period piece than a diagnosis still pending treatment.
1 out of 1 members found this review helpful.