Bullets Over Broadway

Bullets Over Broadway, released on January 18, 1995, is a Woody Allen film starring John Cusack, Dianne Wiest, Chazz Palminteri and Jennifer Tilly. It is a comedy about an aspiring playwright who ends up casting gangsters in his latest production. The film was nominated for seven Academy Awards, winning Best Supporting Actress for Tilly's performance.

The film is set in the 1920s in New York City as up-and-coming young playwright David Shayne (John Cusack) has written a new play. In order to get it produced, though, he accepts funding by gangster Nick Valenti (Joe Viterelli) under the condition that he cast Nick's girlfriend Olive Neal (Jennifer Tilly), a mediocre actress at best. Also part of the play are Nick's bodyguard Cheech (Chazz Palminteri), who takes over much of the play's production and Helen Sinclair (Dianne Wiest), a prima donna with whom David has an affair, cheating on his wife Ellen (Mary-Louise Parker). David becomes embroiled in conflicts with cast and true and must decide what price he truly puts on art.

• John Cusack as David Shayne

• Dianne Wiest as Helen Sinclair

• Jennifer Tilly as Olive Neal

• Chazz Palminteri as Cheech

• Mary-Louise Parker as Ellen

• Jack Warden as Julian Marx

• Joe Viterelli as Nick Valenti

• Rob Reiner as Sheldon Flender

• Tracey Ullman as Eden Brent

• Jim Broadbent as Warner Purcell

• Harvey Fierstein as Sid Loomis

• Stacey Nelkin as Rita

• Malgorzata Zajaczkowska as Lili

• Charles Cragin as Rifkin

• Nina Sonja Peterson as Josette

"Writer-director Woody Allen mounts a lively farce (1994) set in Manhattan in 1928—in a milieu that interfaces prohibition gangsters with Broadway theater—and has a number of amusing things to say about the interactions between art and commerce, both seen here in their crasser forms."—Jonathan Rosenbaum, Chicago Readerhttp://www.chicagoreader.com/chicago/bullets-over-broadway/Film?oid=1056629

"Bullets Over Broadway, now available on home video, is Woody Allen at his best -- a gem of a Broadway fable with a crafty premise, a raft of brilliant actors at the top of their form and a bouncy, just-for-pleasure attitude."—Edward Guthmann, San Francisco Chroniclehttp://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/1995/05/19/DD64359.DTL

"The movie is very funny and, in the way it follows its logic wherever it leads, surprisingly tough."—Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Timeshttp://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/19941028/REVIEWS/410280301/1023