Bullets over Broadway Movie Review
This valentine to Broadway is a full notch above Tay Garnett's Main Street to Broadway, a star-studded fest that crammed the best theatrical troupers of that era (including wonderful Tallulah Bankhead) into a slight story about a first-time playwright (newcomer Tom Morton, whom no one got a chance to remember before he was forgotten). Bullets’ story line involving fledgling writer David Shayne (John Cusack) basically functions as an immobile jungle gym around which colorful characters do cartwheels with intriguing subplots. Best of all are gangster Chazz Palminteri and his boss’ no-talent girlfriend Jennifer Tilly, who both want to break into show business in the worst way. (Now why couldn't they have been cast in 1993's Born Yesterday?) The atmosphere and period details are simultaneously faithful and satirical. Every stock company has an idol whom the other members tolerate, but the audiences worship (that would be chain-eating Jim Broadbent here). Dianne Wiest, if not in Bankhead's league, won an Oscar as the stage diva who's on 24 hours a day, and Rob Reiner, Mary-Louise Parker, and Joe Viterelli add to the background flavor. You won't mind a bit that Cusack, at the center of this infectious whirlwind of energy, fades into the wallpaper most of the time.
1994 (R) 106m/C Dianne Wiest, John Cusack, Jennifer Tilly, Rob Reiner, Chazz Palminteri, Tracey Ullman, Mary-Louise Parker, Joe Viterelli, Jack Warden, Jim Broadbent, Harvey Fierstein, Annie-Joe Edwards; D: woody Allen; W: woody Allen, Douglas McGrath; C: Carlo Di Palma. Academy Awards ‘94: Best Supporting Actress (Wiest); Golden Globe Awards ‘95: Best Supporting Actress (Wiest); Independent Spirit Awards ‘95: Best Supporting Actor (Palminteri), Best Supporting Actress (Wiest); Los Angeles Film Critics Association Awards ‘94: Best Supporting Actress (Wiest); New York Film Critics Awards ‘94: Best Supporting Actress (Wiest); National Society of Film Critics Awards ‘94: Best Supporting Actress (Wiest); Screen Actors Guild Award ‘94: Best Supporting Actress (Wiest); Nominations: Academy Awards ‘94: Best Art Direction/Set Decoration, Best Costume Design, Best Director (Allen), Best Original Screenplay, Best Supporting Actor (Palminteri), Best Supporting Actress (Tilly); British Academy Awards ‘95: Best Original Screenplay; Independent Spirit Awards ‘95: Best Film, Best Screenplay. VHS, LV, Closed Caption