Hi, Mom!

A must see for De Niro fans. Strange but filled with exceptionally funny moments and fine performances all around. De Niro sort of wanders around from voyeur/pornographer to performance artist to urban terrorist. Although fairly pointless highly enjoyable.

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.

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 was interested in seeing "Hi, Mom" for a few reasons. One, was because of an early Brian De Palma comedy film with early appearance of Robert De Niro. Two, because the trailer to the film looked very funny and strangely exciting. And Three, because I have seen this film on the video shelf for a while. Back when I was young boy, I seen the film remember showing this to my parents. I wish I would gotten this years back. But I recently watched it online with an exciting feeling that this film was going to be good. And as it turned out, I loved it. However, while watching this, it seems oddly familiar. In my opinion, it looks like De Niro is acting like a Woody Allen character. So it's about a young man just coming back from the Vietnam. And moving into an abandoned apartment across the street, to discover the people in the other apartments across the street. So he meets and gets in touch with a young lady across the street while almost being a 'peeping tom', he tries to figure out information about her. While tries setting his camera up for the people lots of terrible/hilarious things happen. Also later on he discovers an audition for a live theater experience called "Be Black Baby" which is a story about white people going to experience what it is like to be a Negro. This segment is actually a frightening and almost as realistic as i've ever seen in a film. But before the segment begins and De Niro auditions for the role as a police officer, it was my favorite/humorous scene where he talks to a mop and ladder. "What did you say to me? Make love, not war? Hey listen I make love very well!" So there's lots of information from the film. I would check it out if not seen yet. I believe a lot of people do not enjoy this film very much, despite all the racial elements in it, and stuff like that. But I would say that there was really nothing wrong with this film. It's a bright comedy from the 70's, and features the early career of Robert De Niro, and did a very well job as the character Jon Rubin. I enjoyed it! And I would like to say one thing...Hi, Mom!

An odd, cynical movie. And it puts a smile on my face. A young De Niro plays Jon Rubin, a single guy that wants to become a * director. He's been spying on the all the neighbors in the local apartment building, and hatches a plan to make voyeur *, filming the unwitting neighbors. Some smart dialogue and slightly corny humor develop, and a great cast makes it work wonderfully. One of the neighbors is a bearded young white fellow whose liberal politics are in overdrive. He's producing a play called "Be Black, Baby". The flyers promoting the show feature photos he's taken of white folks painted black. Seeing him pose for the camera, you can see that he is proud and excited- apparently he thinks that covering himself in black paint will immediately enable him to completely understand the plight of African Americans. And perhaps help purge whatever latent racism he has within. Nice goals, but a useless strategy. Cracks me up. Anyway, De Niro's * career doesn't take off. He ends up trading in his camera for, embarrassingly, a television. And he ends up auditioning for Be Black Baby, playing the role of a cop. The play is a "guerrilla theatre" production, with actors interacting with audience, and designed to help races identify with one another. A bit slow at times, but it's pretty intense and realistic. The end of the play (now being shown on a television that Rubin is watching) shows the theatre troupe storming a middle class apartment complex, a flaccid attempt to spark revolution. The middle class tenants defeat the revolutionaries. Rubin can't take it, pulls out his gun, and fires at the television! His whole existence had been swallowed up by activism, and so he can't handle its failure. Flash to what is presumably several years later, and Rubin is now married with a kid on the way. His wife and he have inane conversations about his job and the color of the washing machine. His passionate idealism was fleeting, inevitably replaced by his surrender to the rat race. But then Rubin lights dynamite in his apartment complex, killing many people including his wife. People interviewed outside the wreckage aren't that disturbed, one man lamenting that his wallet was in there. And Rubin approaches the news camera because he wants to say hello to his mother. My description may make this sound like a dark movie, but (except for the play sequence) it really is a fun offbeat comedy. I even loved the music. Check it out!

I watched this back to back with the films predecessor Greetings and I found the first one to be better and more sincere. This one just is. It tries to make a statement about the black community but it is lost on me what that statement is. Maybe it is just because I am not of that time. I had high hopes for this one because Greetings was so good but this one is slow paced and has no apparent meaning. I will give it a second viewing at some point because almost all of Brian De Palma's movies are better on the second viewing, Mission Impossible anyone? But I have my doubts about this one. This is most notable as the last film De Palma made before his breakout success with 1973's Sisters. I however think Sisters is even more a piece of garbage than this movie. See this to complete the masterpiece that is Greetings, all though their is not much completion in this.

Robert De Niro plays a would-be filmmaker in New York City who is given $2000 by a porno producer to make Peep Art--filming the sexual exploits of his neighbors directly out his apartment window--but action is slow, so he gets to know the woman living across from him by pretending they had a date. Another of De Niro's neighbors, a white stage producer, promotes his show, "Be Black Baby", by stirring up the public with on-the-street commentary on what it's like to be black in America. Audacious early effort from writer-director Brian De Palma, a quasi-follow-up to his "Greetings" from 1968, has some very funny revue-style sequences with tricky staging, although the second-act (with white actors in black-face and black actors in white-face) is too hostile and ugly and shuts down the comedy. The two halves of the picture never really jell, anyway, and one begins to miss the easy, naturally comic dialogue from the opening. ** from ****

it would be great to see De Niro bring this much energy to a character again, something really varied and eccentric and lively. I suppose it's just a sign of our culture that once you're famous for something, you have to be that over and over again. But I don't think he's brought anything like this to film since maybe "King of Comedy" or the bit he did in "Brazil". Anyway, I think this is a really incredible, challenging, funny film, a cross between "Rear Window" and something Godard might have done. It's amazing too, considering how big the careers of De Palma and De Niro got and how much attention is paid on places like IFC to the innovations of the "Easy Rider/Raging Bull" era films that this film and "Greetings" are so completely ignored. Watching this you can understand how Paulene Kael was so hot for De Palma. It really has some amazing pieces to it. Also, thinking about the plots and themes of "Taxi Driver" and "King of Comedy", I'm betting this film absolutely blew Scorsese away, really got his head going. You read things like the fact that Redford's working on a sequel to "The Candidate" and all you can think is, man, it would be nice if all these guys would get together and say "let's do something messed up and smart and fast like we used to, remember? Remember that? Back when we had to get our own lunch?"

I don't remember ever laughing as hard as I did during the first scene where the landlord is showing De Niro the apartment. Convincing him he was getting a furnished apartment with a great view (because he's in the highest level and thus the closest to the open sky). I was sceptical about this movie but it turned to be one of the funniest comedies of the 70's. De Niro is fabulous and I can't imagine why he didn't do more comedy because he's hilarious. Some of the best scenes are when he's improvising his cop role or the one where he gives himself 25 and 1/2 minutes to seduce the girl but instead she messes his plan because she wants to have sex immediately. So he makes up a story and goes out to buy condoms. A very funny movie with cool music, great acting, great sketches and jokes, oh, and Jennifer Salt, one of the sexiest girls I've ever seen on the big screen. A movie that doesn't really have a point but is extremely enjoyable and entertaining. 8/10

I just got done watching an interview with Quentin Tarantino on Charlie Rose from 1994 where Quentin mentioned this movie, his love of Brian DePalma, and how the racial satire of "Hi, Mom!" not only predated but was more biting than "Bonfire of the Vanities". I'd never seen this movie so I sought it out and watched it on YouTube. Wow, what an annoying schizophrenic mess. No wonder nobody's ever heard of it. It starts out great and with great promise -- the whole Charles During/sleazy landlord bit was truly satirical and funny, as was the initial Peeping Tom idea/DeNiro/Jennifer Salt sequence (she never stops eating during their date) -- but man, then it takes a complete 180 and nose-dives into a lengthy, unfunny, and very annoying cinema verite style whose point I'm still not quite sure about. The entire second half of the film is one long "Huh?", as is the ending. "Hi, Mom!" is a very dated film and an odd duck for sure, though not totally without merit, but all-in-all it's a misguided attempt that deserved to be forgotten.