#1173: TOWNSEND, Robert: Hollywood Shuffle (1987)

TOWNSEND, Robert (United States)
Hollywood Shuffle [1987]

Spine #1173

Blu-ray

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.

81 Minutes
Color
Monaural
1:85:1
Criterion Release 2023

Director/Writers

Written by Robert Townsend and Keenen Ivory Wayans.
Townsend was 30 when he directed Hollywood Shuffle.

The Film

With a background in stand-up comedy and zero experience directing, Townsend — with Keenen Ivory Wayans on board as a writer/actor  — set out to make his first film.

The subject matter (the one-note stereotypes black actors were forced into) is certainly an important one, but Townsend didn't quite hit it out of the park with this debut.

Perhaps it is unfair, but it is all but impossible not to compare this to Spike Lee's Bamboozled (2000) {Spine #1019}, dealing with the same subject matter, where the satire is much more forceful, and the storyline more consistently coherent.

Townsend's scenes bump into one another, grasping for laughs ... but the satire is too often superficial and just plain goofy (Black Acting School, There's a Bat In My House!, etc.). However, when he hits, he scores gloriously, as in the Siskel & Ebert take-off with Jimmy Woodward. The Jheri Curl (Wayans) stuff is also very funny.

Potent scenes like when Uncle Ray (David McKnight) (in a glorious close-up) — who's been through it all himself — gives him respect and encouragement are, unfortunately, too rare. Helen Martin (Grandma) lends some gravitas to the proceedings.

The score by Patrice Rushen is superb.

Film Rating (0-60):

52

The Extras

The Booklet

Twelve-page wraparound featuring an essay by critic Aisha Harris.

"Laying bare the typecasting of Black actors in the 1980s, Robert Townsend's crackling directorial debut, Hollywood Shuffle (1987), is a satire that has lost none of its bite. The film's protagonist, Bobby Taylor (Townsend), a young aspiring actor living in Los Angeles, is on the cusp of what he thinks might be his big break: the lead role in a grotesquely stereotypical blaxploitation knockoff called Jivetime Jimmy's Revenge. When he gets a callback for the part, his agent makes clear that he can't bring too much of himself to the table, informing Bobby that the filmmakers are looking for an 'Eddie Murphy type.' The guideline quite literally haunts Bobby's dreams: in one of the film's many fantasy sequences, he imagines attending the audition alongside a roomful of other Black actors who apparently all got the same memo. There they are, dressed as the comedian appears on the cover of his cheesy number-two single from 1985, 'Party All the Time': black leather jackets, gold necklaces, thick mustaches (most of which are very obviously painted on). The camera tracks sideways along the wall of actors, as each does his best Murphy impression. But what is an 'Eddie Murphy type,' exactly? Back in 1987 — when Murphy starred in that year's box-office champ, Beverly Hills Cop II, as well as the stand-up feature Eddie Murphy: Raw — it was one of very few categories that Hollywood envisioned a Black male performer falling into: fast-talking, potty-mouthed, charismatic, lithe, but above all (and this is key) Eddie Murphy. As in, if you, dear Black performer, weren't the man himself, good luck trying to land a part that wasn't a jive-talking pimp, a jive-talking gang member, or a jive-talking servant."

Commentary

Featuring Townsend.

Preparing to shoot the Siskel & Ebert take-off, Wayans blew off the rehearsal. Townsend promptly replaced him with Woodword, who is fantastic!

The story of Eddie Murphy's reaction to the "Eddie Murphy scene" is golden.

Meeting Sidney Poitier — "the power to say no."

Interviews

With actors Cundieff, Johnson, and McGee.

Radio program

Featuring Townsend in conversation with film critic Elvis Mitchell.

Trailer

Extras Rating (0-40):

35

52 + 35 =

87

By Director

By Spine #