Bullets Over Broadway (1994)

Set in 1920s Manhattan, an idealistic young playwright (John Cusack) will do anything necessary to get his first Broadway play produced. So when a notorious mobster (Joe Viterelli) backs his play with the condition his untalented mistress (Jennifer Tilly) get a part in the play, he agrees. Written and directed by Woody Allen (ANNIE HALL). One of Allen's best liked films, both critically and commercially. He's not in this one, instead with have John Cusack as his stand in. Fortunately, unlike many actors who stand in for Allen (like Kenneth Branagh in CELEBRITY), Cusack doesn't mimic Allen's tics and verbal mannerisms. But Cusack's playwright isn't the most interesting character in the film. Far more fun are Dianne Wiest (in an Oscar winning performance) as a vain aging actress, Tilly as a shrill untalented actress (one can't help but think of SINGIN' IN THE RAIN's Lina Lamont) and Chazz Palminteri as a thug who finds he has a talent for writing. There's a moral question at its core, similar to CRIMES AND MISDEMEANORS, but unlike that movie, not to be dwelled on with much seriousness. With Mary Louise Parker, Jack Warden, Jim Broadbent, Tracey Ullman, Rob Reiner, Harvey Fierstein, Debi Mazar, Edie Falco and Benay Venuta.