Hi, Mom! (1970)

Hi, Mom! is Brian De Palma at his most daring and mischievous, a scrappy Greenwich Village time capsule that turns voyeurism, media obsession, and radical politics into a feverish comic nightmare. Robert De Niro, still raw and electric, plays a would-be filmmaker whose “art” keeps curdling into something uglier, and the movie’s sly ingenuity makes you feel the camera itself is in on the joke. The vibe is satirical, confrontational, and often laugh-out-loud funny in a way that can suddenly sting, as De Palma fuses slapstick energy with real anger at the culture it’s skewering. It’s not for everyone—its sexual content and deliberately abrasive set pieces can be a lot—but if you’re curious about audacious 1970s American cinema that swings for the throat and lands with wicked sophistication, this one is a bracing watch.

Hi, Mom! is Brian De Palma trying to bottle late-60s New York paranoia into a nasty little satire about voyeurism, media, and political theater, with a young Robert De Niro throwing himself into the chaos. The problem is it’s messy on purpose and then just plain messy: the pacing wanders, the structure lurches from sleazy comedy to shock-piece provocation, and the finale lands with more noise than payoff. It also leans hard into uncomfortable material (sexual exploitation, racial “performance” as confrontation, and violence) that’s meant to sting, but can feel more like an endurance test than insight. If you like abrasive, experimental time-capsule cinema and can tolerate uneven execution for a few bold set-pieces and De Niro’s raw energy, you may be intrigued; if you want a coherent crime-comedy with satisfying momentum, this will likely irritate you.