Description: "Alive, amusing, interesting and inventive" (Newsweek), Hi, Mom! established Brian DePalma (Carrie) as a formidable directorial talent and premier social satirist. Bursting withincisive parodies of home movies, TV documentaries and '60s off-Broadway "encounter theater" groups, and starring Robert De Niro in one of his earliest roles, Hi, Mom! is "brilliant and engaging" (Variety)! De Niro stars as Jon Rubin, a charmingly directionless Vietnam vet and would-be "erotic filmmaker." Convincing a film producer to finance his "peep art," Rubin sets up his camera to film the nocturnal activities of his unsuspecting neighbors. In short order, he goes from voyeur to participantand mild-mannered milquetoast to full-fledged urban guerrilla!
I'm not a liberal! I'm a radical! This is one of the best underground films of the 60's and 70's. I find it quite telling that most of the reviews here are as oblivious as De Palma's liberal bourgeois theater goers regarding the classic "Be Black Baby" sequence- the sequence was intended as a parody of the "Theatre of Cruelty" and white bourgeois liberals. Liberals are skewered throughout this delightful film- I love the satiric riffs on PBS and the wealthy little pampered poodle of a middle aged Upper West Side woman who declares herself a "radical" rather than be labeled the more hum drum (and common) "liberal". De Palma was coming at politics from an out there 1960's place- beyond labels and dogmas and through this approach found some truth and giggles. A classic.
A training ground for DeNiro!?!?...Please the man is a natural This movie is so crazy. Hi, Mom asks a great deal from the viewer, and offers little in return. It includes frequent tonal shifts, abrupt changes in generic gear. It begins as an urban farce, transforms into slightly meditative romantic comedy, then, by turns, social satire, and domestic comedy. A viewer could be forgiven for feeling slightly whip-lashed by the film's violent conclusion.
Robert De Niro stars (his third De Palma movie) as a Vietnam vet who becomes obsessed with 16mm filmmaking as a way of making social connections and studying his society. He focuses on a Greenwich Village housing development. Politics become enmeshed with sex when De Niro courts Jennifer Salt (later star of De Palma's "Sisters" ) as a means of gaining access to the apartment building, a symbol of establishment and social conformity.
Hi, Mom! proves to be prescient about the uses of media to extend vision into other people's lives and communicate cultural frustration. Although the methods have changed from film to video, the same curiosity and motivation exist. There's also the same potential to deceive public perception; that's the idea behind De Palma's satire of public TV--then called educational television.
De Palma's inventiveness is highlighted in a sequence titled "Be Black Baby," where racial tension, media hypocrisy and revolutionary politics collide. This segment just kill me because it turned out to the sharpest, funniest, most observant, and most disturbing out of the entire film. No movie or TV sketch since has been as funny or powerful about American social hypocrisy. Its details are too good to give away. To see it is to never forget it. The title, incidentally, refers to the common subversion of FCC rules that most people, excited about their 15 minutes of fame, can't help flouting. This movie announced the beginning of a major film sensibility and today it looks smarter and funnier than any current movie that passes for social comedy. Not an ordinary film of entertainment but very interesting. I would highly recommend this to those who wants to see the early years of Bobby DeNiro and Brain DePalma.
Brian DePalma's artistry is incredible WOW! I am a long time Deniro fan but had never heard of this film. My immediate reaction after watching this was "How did I miss this awesome film with my favorite actor?" Deniro exudes confidence in this role and seems to really get into character. I expected his performance to not be quite as polished in these early stages of his career, but he nails it cold. He stars as Jon, a kind of disillusioned ex-soldier trying to become an erotic filmmaker. He films his neighbors through the window of his dilapidated apartment. Catching people in their private moments, a nice homage to Rear Window, I think.
But the real master with the camera here is Depalma. He uses so many one-of-kind camera techniques, it looks so cool. He really lets his imagination reign supreme, it is very impressive. He creates a very intriguing social satire, which is clearly evident in the next part of the movie. There is an "encounter theater group", which encourages white people to find out what it's like to be black in America. Eat a little soul food, get painted up...what transpires is hilarious and speaks volumes about race relations and liberalism.
Overall, this is a bold movie that isn't afraid to go it's own way. Why aren't there more films like this today? 99% aren't nearly as inventive. Depalma does a great job with unearthing so many different hidden facets--voyeurism, social issues, gender relations, family values, war, random violence, sex...man, it's incredible.
Thanks for shining the light RA...
[No 0 star rating] An Unbelievably Stupid Film Reading the posted reviews here, is like revisting the ballessssss white liberals who are portrayed in this preschool-level, skewered portrayal of the 60's. White = BAD (you can finish the equation.)
For those considering Hi, Mom whether for purchase or rental, be sure to watch it with your (white) wife and then project her into DePalma's puerile depiction of a liberal couple, attending an all black drama (except for DeNiro who conveniently is portraying the viscious hunky cop). Then witness her being raped and mauled while you are beaten. Why? Because you are white!
Stupidity not worthy of further commentary.
Funny and Weird 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 guerilla 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.
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