And this week's Friday night movie was....The King of Comedy!
As some of you who have been following this series may know, i ma something of a newcomer to the films of Martin Scorsese. And from the outset, this movie has a reputation of being an under-appreciated gem. This, along with comparisons being made to this and the recent trailer to the upcoming Joker movie, makes a compelling case to check it out.
Make no mistake: This is a triumph of unease. It is indeed unsettling but the best kind of unsettling (if such a thing exists) in just how subtle it is.
A lot of the movie rests on Robert de Niro's performance as Rupert. I am used to see Robert being tough guys and psychopaths and whilst he is playing a psychopath here he does so in a more subtle way: Rupert is indeed bonkers and mentally damaged but he does what he does with so much confidence - to a point where one would think it's bad thing.
But ultimately much like Taxi Driver, this a movie about the person trapped in isolation. The person who is in dire need of the basic human need of social interaction - only to go about it the wrong way. While this movie was made in 1983 it somehow still comes across as being relevant, over three decades later, in the internet age where everyone is hiding behind a screen, a keyboard and the mother-skirt of anonymity but will struggle beyond it.
Indeed, would it be amiss to say that i can see shades of people I know in both Rupert and Masha?
As for the Joker connection, I have to ask: is this DC's strategy of remaking older movies as superhero movies (after all, isn't Shazam a retread of Big?). That maybe the case but, as Incels/keyboard warriors/socially-maladjusted loners continue to be a talking point, maybe a movie about the isolated person could continue to have a place...
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