Racism and stereotypical roles given to all minorities, including blacks and Latinos has been a staple of Hollywood for far too long. During the 1980's, there might have been exceptions like Morgan Freeman's stunning, blistering pimp in "Street Smart" but they are few and far in between. Robert Townsend's writing and directing debut "Hollywood Shuffle" hits at many targets yet not hard enough, at least not to me. Townshend's approach is softer, more genteel when he needed a shot of raw nerve from the school of Spike Lee to really provide some biting commentary.
Townsend is an out-of-work actor, Bobby, who is hoping to get the role of a pimp named Jimmy, courtesy of Tinseltown Pictures. He practices his lines in the voice of a whiny stereotype, something his grandmother (Helen Martin) is well aware has nothing to do with reality and is a step down from say the likes of Sidney Poitier. She just wants him to work at the post office but Bobby has his dreams of making it in Hollywood - daydreaming where he is an actor who wins 5 Academy Awards! He doesn't want to be stuck at the Winky Dinky Dog restaurant.
Bobby's other daydreams includes potshots at film noir detective movies, Rambo, actors pretending to be Eddie Murphy (hilarious, especially when they imitate Eddie's trademark laugh), a Black Acting School where blacks are schooled in jive talk, even Siskel and Ebert. Some of these skits are funnier than most, though the Black Acting School is a tad repetitive (I would have stuck with the clip about slaves running to the North and exposing some of those one-dimensional stereotypes). Some other bits run a little too long such as when the NAACP President (played by none other than Paul Mooney) finds that Bobby's superstar status is in trouble with the negative roles he's been playing.
"Hollywood Shuffle" is at its best when dealing with Bobby and his little brother Stevie (Craigus R. Johnson) who reveres his older brother, and the grandmother's disdain at the Hollywood roles being offered to black people. Some of the Winky Dinky Dog restaurant bits just don't work and I barely smiled at them, despite the presence of John Witherspoon and Keenan Ivory Wayans. Still the movie works more often than not and one of the last scenes, where Bobby plays that awful pimp while his brother and grandmother look on, strikes a chord of real truth that gets to you. That is the heart and soul of "Hollywood Shuffle."
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