Rusty Cundieff
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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Rusty Cundieff
Filmography
Movies
Credit | |||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
No Score Yet | No Score Yet | Meet Me Next Christmas | Director | - | 2024 |
13% |
|
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 |
|
Tales From the Hood 3 |
Director, Screenwriter |
- | 2020 |
78% |
|
Tales From the Hood 2 |
Director, Screenwriter, Producer |
- | 2018 |
No Score Yet |
|
American Nightmares |
Director, Screenwriter, Producer |
- | 2018 |
No Score Yet | No Score Yet | Tales From the Hood 2 | Director | - | 2018 |
No Score Yet |
|
White Water |
Director, Producer |
- | 2015 |
5% |
|
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% |
|
Sprung |
Montel (Character), Director, Writer |
$7.6M | 1997 |
58% |
|
Tales From the Hood |
Richard (Character), Director, Screenwriter |
$10.7M | 1995 |
83% |
|
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 |