Hollywood Shuffle

Hollywood Shuffle is a 1987, American, satirical comedy film. Production was by Conquering Unicorn.

Plot
Bobby Taylor (Robert Townsend) is an aspiring actor with the dream of trying to make the big time in Hollywood. But when he gets there, it's not quite what he expected. The film executives want him to play stereotypical, Afro-American roles. Bobby is left pondering to himself about what's more important: Should he give in to the execs' demands to please them to fit what they want and he keeps his job? Or should he stay true to himself and turn down those kinds of roles, and forget about the offer, and opportunity, until he finds execs who will give him roles that he's more comfortable with portraying? Throughout the story, he fantasizes about himself in the various scenarios he's placed.

Why It Rocks

 * 1) The cinematography is acceptable enough and has plenty of high quality for the viewing experience.
 * 2) The writing is well-constructed in the set-up. It makes good use of how it switches back-and-forth between the main parts that involve Bobby's reality and the fantasies he imagines himself being in having to do with the roles he takes.
 * 3) All of the characters are great in one way or another. Especially Bobby, who is faced with whether he is willing to sacrifice his integrity or not.
 * 4) The background music is good, it comes in at just the right moments, and fits them well.
 * 5) The actors performed outstandingly well, especially those who seamlessly switched the multiple roles they played and adapted them to go well with the movie parodies.
 * 6) All of Bobby's fantasy sequences that represent skits have a lot of hilarity to them and aren't disappointments. Such as one involving one of Bobby's imagined characters having to go against a guy who is constantly spraying his Jheri curls with an activator, the Zombie Pimps skit, and another is a brief but still great one parodying Rambo called "Rambro".
 * 7) It gives social commentary and the message that one should never have to compromise nor sacrifice one's beliefs when it comes to being typecasted into stereotypical roles by racist film execs or for any other reason. Being true to oneself is what's more important in the end.
 * 8) It provides the insight to aspiring, minority actors that they shouldn't have to settle for less than best. That they can be so much more than stereotypes and be better than those.
 * 9) Some great lines of dialogue and jokes that are memorable enough to be quotable.
 * 10) It is a fine example of why blacks had to found and form their own studios, and make their own movies their way themselves.
 * 11) For all the aforementioned reasons, this is one of the finer works by or partly by Robert Townsend.

Videos
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