Hi, Mom! (1970)

Long before either Robert DeNiro or Brian DePalma were famous, they teamed for this low budget satire on Urban Life in late 60s NYC. The resulting film was a mixed bag at best, with one truly brilliant sequence - the guerrilla theater piece "Be Black, Baby" - a few clever observations and a fair bit of dead time, where it seems as if nobody came up with much, and it got filmed anyway. DeNiro plays a Vietnam vet who wanders about NYC filming things 'peeping Tom' style, looking for a purpose in life or a personal mission. If this sounds like Travis Bickle (Taxi Driver) with a camera rather than a cab, it sure does, but unfortunately, DeNiro has less to do that is cinematically captivating here than in his "Are you talking' to me?" moments as Bickle. The character is less interesting on screen, less well-formed and thus less of a scene-stealer. Plus, DePalma was clearly so enamored of the film- making process that the viewer is supposed to find the voyeuristic act of simply filming stuff to be as orgasmic as the director thinks it is, even when nothing much very interesting is being filmed. I still recommend the movie but urge caution. The good parts here are really good. It would be a better movie, obviously, if there were more of them.

I would not categorize the films of Brian De Palma as being overly clever, witty, or even all that funny (attempts to be so usually just end up being cheesy). However, this early effort was all of the above, minus the cheese. Robert De Niro and Jennifer Salt are both fine, and there are numerous smaller roles whose performers all hit just the right notes in their delivery. The opening scene with Charles Durning as a slumlord trying to rent out a dilapidated apartment to De Niro is particularly amusing.There is also a potent (and, it must be said, somewhat misguided) radicalism to the film (which would not really reappear in De Palma's work until perhaps The Untouchables or, if not there, then certainly Casualties of War). De Niro's filmography after this work does not even come close to matching the political and social consciousness of Hi, Mom!, not even in The Deer Hunter which, like so much of De Niro's work, is mainly concerned with the personal and the psychological.Unfortunately, it is, as mentioned, a terribly misguided radicalism obsessed with race and the pitting of the middle and upper-middle class against the poor. Stopping people as they come off the subway in New York City and demanding to know if this or that person knows what it's like to be Black in America is a stupid question to ask in the first place, and yelling at a small business owner about how he's a cog in the machine of capitalism seems similarly wrongheaded (these people are victims of the beast of capitalism too in so far as they are just trying to make a living under a rotten system like everyone else). It is hard to say sometimes whether De Palma is for or against the anti-White racism of the "Be Black Baby" theater troupe (a cinema verite play put on by the troupe involves rape and murder, so it's unlikely he is fully committed to their politics), but a healthy alternative isn't presented either.Anyway, I would recommend checking this out. For a low budget film from 1970, the quality of the picture and sound is remarkably good.

The second bizarre hippy satire from a young Brian DePalma (the first being Greetings), and featuring a remarkably spontaneous Robert DeNiro as a young Viet Nam vet new in the city and looking for work. The film (while noticeably dated), is practically an act of radicalism in itself as DeNiro boyishly tries to seduce his neighbors while simultaneously filming the act from his apartment to turn it into a work of explosive pornography. DePalma is clever here; he manages to transform the neighboring windows into fixed frames reminiscent of Hitchcock's Rear Window. Once a failure, DeNiro performs as a reactionary police officer in an all African American theater troupe's educational TV program, in which blacks offer liberal whites the opportunity to experience African Americanism as they beat and rape them in white-face; this sequence is particularly strange and not all together funny until DeNiro arrives as the cop. And finally, he transforms himself once again into a guerrilla revolutionary, bombing Laundromats and disguising himself as a bourgeois salesman. This final section is probably the most enjoyable and improvised, though it contains none of the creativity of the first section. The film is interesting if for nothing else, because one gets to witness DePalma and DeNiro stylistically severed from their current work. However, the film seems to try to satirize everything in our society, when in fact it comes across as though it has satirized nothing.

Very strange and satirical look at a Vietnam vet (Robert DeNiro) and how he tries to get a job after being discharged. First he's a peeping tom--photographing neighbors without their knowledge. He also gets involved with one--Julie Bishop (Jennifer Salt). Then he joins a black theatrical group who basically rob all the white liberals who attend their plays! THEN he becomes an urban guerrilla willing to blow up buildings.As you can see this is not for all tastes. The humor is sharp, absurd, no holds barred and VERY funny. This movie takes aims at many targets (blacks, whites, race relations, politics, liberals) and goes after them full force. This may be a little strong for some people (the movie almost got an X rating for nudity) but I loved it. There's a particularly funny episode with blacks questioning white people on the street if they know what it's like to be black.DeNiro is a wonder---he's SO young and already talented. He plays every sequence perfectly. His bits with Allen Garfield are hysterical--the banter between them goes nonstop. DePalma already shows his directorial talents using split screen (in the opening credits) and having almost all of DeNiro's adventures shown through a video camera. Salt is sort of annoying--but she's supposed to be.A VERY 1970s comedy. Lots of the opinions and situations here just don't happen anymore but still worth seeing. Who ever knew that Brian DePalma could do a comedy? ("Bonfire of the Vanities" doesn't count--that was unintentionally funny). I give this an 8.