Review of The King of Comedy (1982) by Simon V — 17 Aug 2009

This is really underrated in Scorsese' filmography. It's kind of like a lighter "Taxi Driver," but at times is still very dark. De Niro was phenomenal and this is the movie I'd probably point to to counter the traditional "he can only play mobsters" attitude.

His monologue at the end was transcendant. The film reminded me a lot of Abbas Kiarostami's "Close-Up" in that both focus on characters desperate to have a taste of recognition and validation.

Kiarostami handles it by shooting a pseudo-documentary involving a real event, while Scorsese opts to create the fascinating character of Rupert Pupkin. In the end its hard to say which I liked better, but both are able to bring about a human connection and sentimentality to what are ultimately two rather sleazy criminals.