''Beauty Shop'' is a 2005 American

comedy film A comedy film is a category of film which emphasizes humor. These films are designed to make the audience laugh through amusement. Films in this style traditionally have a happy ending ( black comedy being an exception). Comedy is one of the o ...

directed by

Bille Woodruff Bille Woodruff is a director of film, television and music videos, noted for directing many videos for a number of R&B and hip-hop artists since the mid-1990s. These artists include Joe, for whom Woodruff has directed 9 music videos since 1994, ...

. The film serves as a

spin-off Spin-off may refer to: *Spin-off (media), a media work derived from an existing work *Corporate spin-off, a type of corporate action that forms a new company or entity * Government spin-off, civilian goods which are the result of military or gov ...

of the '' Barbershop'' film franchise, and stars

Queen Latifah Dana Elaine Owens (born March 18, 1970), known professionally as Queen Latifah, is an American rapper, actress, and singer. Born in Newark, New Jersey, she signed with Tommy Boy Records in 1989 and released her debut album ''All Hail the Que ...

as Gina, a character first introduced in the 2004 film '' Barbershop 2: Back in Business''. This film also stars

Alicia Silverstone Alicia Silverstone ( ; born October 4, 1976) is an American actress. She made her film debut in the thriller '' The Crush'' (1993), earning the 1994 MTV Movie Award for Best Breakthrough Performance, and gained further prominence at age 16 as a ...

Andie MacDowell Rosalie Anderson MacDowell (born April 21, 1958) is an American actress and former fashion model. MacDowell's known for her starring film roles in romantic comedies and dramas. MacDowell has modeled for Calvin Klein and has been a spokeswoman ...

Mena Suvari Mena Alexandra Suvari (; born February 13, 1979) is an American actress, producer, fashion designer and model. After beginning her career as a model and guest-starring on several television shows, she made her film debut in the 1997 drama '' Now ...

Kevin Bacon Kevin Norwood Bacon (born July 8, 1958) is an American actor. His films include the musical-drama film '' Footloose'' (1984), the controversial historical conspiracy legal thriller '' JFK'' (1991), the legal drama '' A Few Good Men'' (1992), t ...

and

Djimon Hounsou Djimon Gaston Hounsou (; ; born April 24, 1964) is a Beninese-American actor and model. He began his career appearing in music videos. He made his film debut in '' Without You I'm Nothing'' (1990) and earned widespread recognition for his role as ...

. Released theatrically in the United States by

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc., also known as Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures and abbreviated as MGM, is an American film, television production, distribution and media company owned by amazon (company), Amazon through MGM Holdings, founded o ...

on March 30, 2005, ''Beauty Shop'' received generally mixed reviews from critics. The film has grossed $37.2 million worldwide against a $25 million production budget.

Plot

Gina Norris is a

widow A widow (female) or widower (male) is a person whose spouse has died. Terminology The state of having lost one's spouse to death is termed ''widowhood''. An archaic term for a widow is "relict," literally "someone left over". This word can so ...

ed hairstylist who has moved from

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = List of sovereign states, Count ...

Atlanta Atlanta ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Georgia. It is the seat of Fulton County, the most populous county in Georgia, but its territory falls in both Fulton and DeKalb counties. With a population of 498,7 ...

so her daughter Vanessa can attend a private

music school A music school is an educational institution specialized in the study, training, and research of music. Such an institution can also be known as a school of music, music academy, music faculty, college of music, music department (of a larger ins ...

. She has made a name for herself as a stylist, but after her self-centered and domineering boss, Jorge, criticizes her decisions, she quits and sets up her own shop, purchasing a run-down salon with the help of a loan officer. Upon buying the salon, she runs into instant barriers: loudmouthed young stylists, older clients who are fixed in their habits, an energetic young boy named Willie who constantly flirts with women (including Vanessa) while filming for his next music video, people wary of her ability as a hairdresser, and the constant trouble her rebellious sister-in-law, Darnelle, finds herself in. Gina issues an ultimatum with Darnelle to clean up her act and start paying her back or she will be evicted. In a short time, the previous owner's clients become her own and many of her former customers find their way from Jorge's to her salon. When electrical issues arise, she finds that the upstairs renter, Joe, is a handsome

electrician An electrician is a tradesperson specializing in electrical wiring of buildings, transmission lines, stationary machines, and related equipment. Electricians may be employed in the installation of new electrical components or the maintenance ...

from Africa who eventually bonds with Vanessa due to his skills on the piano. Because Jorge is jealous that his shop is losing clients to Gina's, he bribes Crawford, a ruthless

health inspector Environmental Health Officers (also known as Public Health Inspectors or Environmental Health Practitioners) are responsible for carrying out measures for protecting public health, including administering and enforcing legislation related to enviro ...

, to find various ways to shut down Gina's business. Over time, neighborhood regulars frequent the shop and the varied stylists become close to Gina, as does Joe. One of her former clients from Jorge's uses her connections to set up a meeting with

CoverGirl CoverGirl is an American cosmetics brand founded in Maryland, United States, by the Noxzema Chemical Company. It was acquired by Procter & Gamble in 1989 and later acquired by Coty, Inc. in 2016. The Noxell Company advertised this cosmetics li ...

for Gina's homemade miracle conditioner, affectionately called "hair crack". During a dance at a

night club A nightclub (music club, discothèque, disco club, or simply club) is an entertainment venue during nighttime comprising a dance floor, lightshow, and a stage for live music or a disc jockey (DJ) who plays recorded music. Nightclubs gener ...

, James and Lynn start a romance. Tragedy strikes when the shop is trashed and vandalized the night before Vanessa's big piano recital. When Gina next enters the shop, she finds not only that her staff has cleaned up the majority of the mess and brought items from home so the shop could operate, but Darnelle has also decided to grow up and enter beauty school. While filming for his next topic, Willie tapes a meeting between Jorge and Inspector Crawford and learns that they were responsible for trying to ruin Gina. Shortly after, a disheveled woman enters the shop and begs for someone to fix her hair for a wedding she has in a few hours. Soon after, Willie shows Gina the

videotape Videotape is magnetic tape used for storing video and usually sound in addition. Information stored can be in the form of either an analog or digital signal. Videotape is used in both video tape recorders (VTRs) and, more commonly, videoca ...

of the meeting he filmed of Jorge and Inspector Crawford. Later that night, Gina goes to Jorge's salon to not only tell him about the tape, but that she knows he is not Jorge Christophe from

Austria Austria, , bar, Östareich officially the Republic of Austria, is a country in the southern part of Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine states, one of which is the capital, Vienna, the most populous ...

, but George Christie from

Nebraska Nebraska () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. It is bordered by South Dakota to the north; Iowa to the east and Missouri to the southeast, both across the Missouri River; Kansas to the south; Colorado to the sout ...

. Gina also makes it clear to Jorge that no matter what he does to bring her down, he will never break her. As she leaves, Jorge insults her using his actual country accent, but James (Gina's only male employee) and a few of his friends give Jorge an extreme haircut as revenge. Later, as the shop listens to their favorite radio talk-show host DJ Hollerin' Helen, they discover she was the desperate customer on the way to the wedding as she gives the shop (and Gina's "hair crack" conditioner) a shout-out on the radio.

Cast

as Gina Norris *

as Joe *

as Lynn *

Alfre Woodard Alfre Woodard (; born November 8, 1952) is an American actress. She has received various accolades, including four Primetime Emmy Awards (tying the record for the most acting Emmys won by an African-American performer, along with Regina King), ...

as Ms. Josephine *

Sherri Shepherd Sherri Shepherd (born April 22, 1967) is an American actress, comedian, author, broadcaster, and television personality. She currently hosts the daily syndicated daytime talk show, '' Sherri''. From 2007 to 2014, Shepherd was a co-host of the da ...

as Ida *

Golden Brooks Golden Brooks is an American actress. She began her career with starring role in the Showtime comedy series, '' Linc's'' (1998–2000), and later has appeared in films ''Timecode'' (2000) and ''Impostor'' (2001). From 2000 to 2008, Brooks ...

as Chanel *

Bryce Wilson Bryce Wilson (born October 7, 1972) is an American record producer/ entrepreneur and actor. He was formerly half of late 1990s duo Groove Theory, and former artist on the early 1990s dance music/ electro hip-hop band Mantronix. Mantronix M ...

as James *

as Jorge Christophe * Keshia Knight Pulliam as Darnelle *

as Terri *

as Joanne Marcus *

Paige Hurd Paige Audrey-Marie Hurd (born July 20, 1992) is an American actress of mixed African American and Puerto Rican heritage. She is best known for her recurring role as Tasha Clarkson on the CW sitcom ''Everybody Hates Chris'', Samantha Grover in ...

as Vanessa Norris *Laura Hayes as Paulette *

Lil' JJ James Charles Lewis, III (born October 31, 1990), known professionally as Lil' JJ and Big JJ, is an American actor and stand-up comedian, best known for his role as Jordan on the Nickelodeon television series ''Just Jordan'' and doing Vital Infor ...

as Willie *

Omari Hardwick Omari Latif Hardwick (born January 9, 1974) is an American actor known for his starring role as James "Ghost" St. Patrick, the protagonist of Starz's ''Power'' and his role as Vanderohe in Zack Snyder's ''Army of the Dead'' (2021). He is also kn ...

as Byron *

Adele Givens Willadele Givens is an American comedian, actress and writer. Beginning her career during the late–1980s in comedy, Givens television appearances include ''The Hughleys'', ''Moesha'', ''The Parkers'', '' Comedy Central Presents'', ''Def Comed ...

as Hollerin' Helen *

Sheryl Underwood Sheryl Patrice Underwood (born October 28, 1963) is an American comedian, actress and television host. She first rose to prominence in the comedy world as the first female finalist in 1989's Miller Lite Comedy Search. Currently, Underwood is one ...

as Catfish Rita *Jim Holmes as Inspector Crawford *

LisaRaye McCoy LisaRaye McCoy (born September 23, 1967), known as LisaRaye, is an American actress, fashion designer, model, businesswoman and former first lady of the Turks and Caicos Islands. McCoy is best known for portraying Diana "Diamond" Armstrong in t ...

as Rochelle *

Kimora Lee Simmons Kimora Lee Simmons (née Perkins) is an American model, business woman, fashion designer, venture capitalist, entrepreneur, TV personality, philanthropist and author. Early life Kimora Lee Perkins was born in St. Louis, Missouri. Stephen M. ...

as Denise *

Della Reese Delloreese Patricia Early (July 6, 1931 – November 19, 2017), known professionally as Della Reese, was an American jazz and gospel singer, actress, and ordained minister whose career spanned seven decades. She began her long career as a s ...

as Mrs. Towner *Joyful Drake as Mercedes *Tawny Dahl as Porsche *

Andrew Levitas Social Impact Artist Andrew Levitas (born September 4, 1977) is an American painter, sculptor, filmmaker, writer, producer, photographer, and restaurateur. Early life Levitas was born in New York City. He attended Horace Mann School and then D ...

as Stacy *

Octavia Spencer Octavia Lenora Spencer (born May 25, 1970) is an American actress. She is the recipient of several accolades, including an Academy Award, a British Academy Film Award, a Golden Globe Award, two Critics' Choice Awards and three Screen Actors ...

as Ida * Birdman as Glen * Wilmer Valderrama as Corky *

Reagan Gomez-Preston Reagan Amyre Gomez-Preston (born April 24, 1980) is an American television, film and voice actress. She is known for her roles as Zaria Peterson on The WB sitcom '' The Parent 'Hood'' (1995–1999) and Roberta Tubbs on the FOX animated comed ...

as Chelsea *Ki Toy Johnson as Debbie *

Nancy Lenehan Nancy Lenehan (born April 26, 1953) is an American actress who has appeared in film and television since the 1980s. She is best known for Audrey in ''Grace Under Fire'' (1993-1998), Kay Hickey in ''My Name Is Earl'' (2005-2008), and Angela in ' ...

as Mrs. Struggs

Reception

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wan ...

, the film holds an approval rating of 38%, based on reviews from 119 critics, with an average score of 5.35/10. The site's critics consensus reads: "Despite a strong performance by Queen Latifah, ''Beauty Shop'' is in need of some style pointers." On

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created by Jason Dietz, Marc ...

, the film has a weighted average score of 53 rating, based on 28 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews". Audiences surveyed by

CinemaScore CinemaScore is a market research firm based in Las Vegas. It surveys film audiences to rate their viewing experiences with letter grades, reports the results, and forecasts box office receipts based on the data. Background Ed Mintz founded Ci ...

gave the film a grade A− on scale of A to F.

Claudia Puig Claudia Puig (born September 10, 1956) is an entertainment journalist and an American film critic. She was on staff at USA Today as lead film critic and prior to that was a staff writer at the Los Angeles Times. She is currently a critic for NPR ...

of ''

USA Today ''USA Today'' (stylized in all uppercase) is an American daily middle-market newspaper and news broadcasting company. Founded by Al Neuharth on September 15, 1982, the newspaper operates from Gannett's corporate headquarters in Tysons, Virgini ...

'' wrote "Overall, the parts don't come together and jell as well as they did in the Barbershop films". Jennifer Frey of ''

The Washington Post ''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large n ...

'' praised lead actress, Queen Latifah, for being herself. Ruthe Stein of the ''

San Francisco Chronicle The ''San Francisco Chronicle'' is a newspaper serving primarily the San Francisco Bay Area of Northern California. It was founded in 1865 as ''The Daily Dramatic Chronicle'' by teenage brothers Charles de Young and Michael H. de Young. The pa ...

'' said that " ctress

shows she's as adept at comedy as drama". Derek Armstrong of

AllMovie AllMovie (previously All Movie Guide) is an online database with information about films, television programs, and screen actors. , AllMovie.com and the AllMovie consumer brand are owned by RhythmOne. History AllMovie was founded by popular-cul ...

gave the film three out of five stars, stating that while the film sticks to the same formula which made the '' Barbershop'' films so successful, it still "bursts with life, having attracted a spectrum of enthusiastic performers and a script that exceeds broad character types."

Awards and nominations

2005 BET Comedy Awards *Outstanding Directing for a Theatrical Film—

(nominated) *Outstanding Lead Actress in a Theatrical Film—

(nominated) *Outstanding Theatrical Film (nominated) *Outstanding Writing for a Theatrical Film—

Audrey Wells Audrey Ann Wells (''née'' Lederer; January 25, 1960 – October 4, 2018) was an American screenwriter, film director, and producer. Her 1999 film ''Guinevere'' won the Waldo Salt Screenwriting Award. Early life Wells was born in San Francisco, ...

, Kate Lanier, Norman Vance Jr. (nominated) 2005 Black Movie Awards *Outstanding Achievement in Writing—Kate Lanier, Norman Vance Jr. (nominated) *Outstanding Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role—Queen Latifah (nominated) 2005 Teen Choice Awards * Choice Movie Actress: Comedy—Queen Latifah (nominated) * Choice Movie: Hissy Fit—Queen Latifah (nominated) * Choice Movie: Sleazebag—

(nominated) *Choice Movie: Rap Artist—Queen Latifah (nominated) 2006 Black Reel Awards *Best Actress—Queen Latifah (nominated) 2006 NAACP Image Awards *Outstanding Actress in a Motion Picture—Queen Latifah (nominated)

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Beauty Shop Barbershop (franchise) 2005 comedy films African-American comedy films American sequel films Films about hairdressers Film spin-offs Films directed by Bille Woodruff Films produced by Robert Teitel Films scored by Christopher Young Films shot in Atlanta Films set in Atlanta Films shot in Georgia (U.S. state) Mandeville Films films Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer films Films produced by David Hoberman 2000s English-language films 2000s American films