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Rusty Cundieff

Highest Rated: 83% Fear of a Black Hat (1993)

Lowest Rated: 5% Movie 43 (2013)

Birthday: Dec 13, 1960

Birthplace: Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA

The first films of actor-writer-director Rusty Cundieff have displayed qualities typical of a certain tendency in African-American filmmaking in Hollywood in the decade following the groundbreaking the advent of Spike Lee in the mid-1980s. These films--"Fear of a Black Hat" (1993), "Tales From the Hood" (1995) and "Sprung" (1997)--suggest their maker's relatively cordial relationship to recent American pop culture. Thus far, Cundieff seems to have largely rejected the explicitly political, critical and angry approach of his more serious contemporaries (e.g., Lee, John Singleton, the Hughes Brothers) in favor of the playful audience-friendly tone of Robert Townsend and the Hudlin Brothers. Like Keenen Ivory Wayans, he has shown an aptitude for black-oriented parodies of forms that are more often white-identified (specifically pretentious rock documentaries, cheesy 50s comic-book derived horror anthologies and kooky romantic comedy). While he does not ignore the social problems confronting the black community (i.e., drugs, crime, domestic violence, racism), Cundieff's storytelling instincts are unabashedly accessible and commercial. More impressively, he has managed to retain creative control of his work. Quirky, jokey and derivative, his films seem to aspire to some degree of revisionism but, thus far, he has yet to display the organizing intelligence or overarching vision to reformulate his many influences into a meaningful new hybrid.

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Highest rated movies

83% 87% Fear of a Black Hat
Watchlist
78% 43% Tales From the Hood 2
Watchlist
69% 54% Meet Me Next Christmas Watchlist
58% 69% Tales From the Hood
Watchlist
20% 73% Sprung
Watchlist
13% 43% 57 Seconds Watchlist
5% 24% Movie 43
Watchlist
23% American Nightmares
Watchlist
Tales From the Hood 2
Watchlist
37% Tales From the Hood 3 Watchlist

Filmography

Movies

Credit
69% 54% Meet Me Next Christmas Director - 2024
13% 43% 57 Seconds Director,
Screenwriter
- 2023
No Score Yet No Score Yet A New Diva's Christmas Carol Director - 2022
No Score Yet No Score Yet Christmas in Harmony Director - 2021
No Score Yet 37% Tales From the Hood 3 Director,
Screenwriter
- 2020
78% 43% Tales From the Hood 2 Director,
Screenwriter,
Producer
- 2018
No Score Yet 23% American Nightmares Director,
Screenwriter,
Producer
- 2018
No Score Yet No Score Yet Tales From the Hood 2 Director - 2018
No Score Yet 75% White Water Director,
Producer
- 2015
5% 24% Movie 43 Director $8.8M 2013
No Score Yet No Score Yet Kiss and Tell: The History of Black Romance in Movie Unknown (Character) - 2011
No Score Yet No Score Yet Hide and Shriek: A New Spin and Marty Adventure Director - 2000
20% 73% Sprung Montel (Character),
Director,
Writer
$7.6M 1997
58% 69% Tales From the Hood Richard (Character),
Director,
Screenwriter
$10.7M 1995
83% 87% Fear of a Black Hat Ice Cold (Character),
Director,
Screenwriter
$232.5K 1993

TV

Credit
No Score Yet No Score Yet AMC+ Fan Experience Unknown (Character) 2021
85% 75% Creepshow Director 2021
No Score Yet No Score Yet Gay Skit Happens Director 2016
No Score Yet 82% CSI: New York Writer 2009
83% No Score Yet thirtysomething Student 5 (Guest Star) 1990