Hollywood Shuffle, 1987.
Directed by Robert Townsend.
Starring Robert Townsend, Anne-Marie Johnson, Helen Martin, Keenen Ivory Wayans, John Witherspoon, Eugene Robert Glazer, Dom Irrera, Rusty Cundieff, and Bobby McGee.
SYNOPSIS:
Criterion has added Robert Townsend’s classic Hollywood Shuffle to their collection, complete with a new 4K scan from the original camera negative and a trio of new bonus features. It’s a worthwhile purchase for fans of the film.
Robert Townsend’s Hollywood Shuffle may seem odd to today’s younger viewers, in light of the strides Black people have made in Hollywood during the 36 years since it debuted, but it’s important to note that equality in Tinseltown is still a work in progress.
And, yes, this is a film that highlights the plight of Black men in Hollywood in the late 80s while not paying much attention to other minorities, particularly women and gay men, but I think that’s due to the fact that Townsend and co-writer Keenen Ivory Wayans wanted to chronicle the stereotypes they were expected to adhere to if they wanted to make it as actors at the time.
Hollywood Shuffle stars Townsend as Bobby Taylor, a young man who works at a hot dog stand while trying to break into Hollywood as an actor. Endangering his job to attend casting calls, he finds himself faced with roles that expect him to adopt insulting stereotypes about Black people, particularly those living in inner cities.
Bobby’s girlfriend supports his aspirations, as do his mother and his younger brother, although his grandmother admonishes him not to accept any roles that are degrading and set a poor example for Black youth. However, he’s so passionate about his dream that he ends up doing exactly that, which creates a crisis of conscience.
The story is interspersed with Bobby’s daydreams, such as playing a private investigator in the Sam Spade mold, reviewing movies with a friend on a show called Sneaking Into the Movies, and eventually winning an Oscar for the role of the Rambo-esque character Rambro. Some of those bits go on a bit too long, but they’re all funny, and I’m sure Bobby Taylor wasn’t the only aspiring Black actor who thought about such things during the 1980s.
Criterion has brought the movie to Blu-ray in a new edition based on a 4K scan of the original negative. Hollywood Shuffle has a brightness to it that was typical of a lot of 80s fare and that’s enhanced here. I don’t own previous home video editions of the film, but my understanding is that the visual quality is much improved over previous releases.
There aren’t a ton of extras on this disc, which isn’t a surprise given the guerrilla nature of the filmmaking here (it was shot in 12 days, but over 2.5 years), but everything here was newly commissioned by Criterion, starting with Townsend’s excellent commentary track.
Hollywood Shuffle only runs about 81 minutes, but Townsend packs his commentary with tons of information, from how he financed the production (credit cards, an funding source used by other indie filmmakers of the era, including Kevin Smith) to the challenges he faced on such a small budget. In the end, he credits the making of the movie as his version of film school, and he forged many alliances that helped him, as well as his cast and crew, use the experience as a launching pad into careers.
Next up is Doing the Hollywood Shuffle, a 24-minute discussion with actors Rusty Cundieff, Anne-Marie Johnson, and Bobby McGee, who talk about their experiences making the movie as well as what they were going through in Hollywood at the time. Like Townsend, they had to endure being told things like “Be more Black” when reading lines at auditions. They also have some interesting anecdotes about the making of the film, particularly how Townsend was always looking for locations where he could quickly shoot a scene without needing the required permits.
The other new extra is a 27-minute radio interview of Townsend by film critic Elvis Mitchell, who gets his subject to dig even deeper into the subject matter that the commentary track touches on. It certainly highlights that, as far as Black actors and actresses have come in Hollywood, they still have a distance to go to catch up with their white counterparts.
The theatrical trailer rounds out the platter, and the included booklet features an essay by critic Aisha Harris.
Flickering Myth Rating – Film: ★ ★ ★ ★ / Movie: ★ ★ ★ ★
Brad Cook
Originally published February 28, 2023. Updated April 22, 2024.
