The King of Comedy (1983)
Rupert Pupkin (Robert De Niro) is an aspiring comedian looking for his big break. He idolizes talk show host Jerry Langford (Jerry Lewis) and dreams of one day performing on his program. When he meets his idol, Pupkin think he’s finally made it, but Langford is dismissive of his talent, and Pupkin takes extreme action.
This is a refreshing take on celebrity culture and the worship it inspires / demands. The flip side to Andy Warhol’s fifteen minutes of fame is everyone thinks they should already be famous.
Pupkin doesn’t see the countless hours performing at small night clubs, touring, and auditioning required for success. He sees the end result and thinks it’s the starting point.
His recent comedy work has mostly been a spoof of his tough guy image, but De Niro’s work here is more nuanced and impressive than the broad comedy in Meet the Parents (2000), The Big Wedding (2013), or Grudge Match (2013). Pupkin is just as deranged as Travis Bickle.
Jerry Lewis is not flashy as Jerry Langford. Lewis wisely allows his frustration and anger to build over the course of the film; he’s the straight man to Pupkin’s dangerous joke.
A lesser movie would have had Rupert kill Jerry, but in Scorcese’s hands Rupert blackmails his way into a prized spot on Langford’s show. The movie had lead us to believe Rupert was not funny, so when he gives a raucously funny performance it changes our perception. Because he’s talented, it almost makes us feel the lengths he went to get his break were worth it.
Rupert confesses to the audience, “tomorrow you’ll know I wasn’t kidding and you’ll all think I’m crazy. But I figure it this way: better to be king for a night, than schmuck for a lifetime.” This is the secret, unspoken mantra of thousands of reality television stars in the twenty-first century. We are all Rupert Pupkin now.
Hair (1979)
Five years after winning an Oscar for One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, Czech filmmaker Milos Forman directed this film adaptation of one of the biggest American musicals of the 1960s.
New army recruit Claude meets a tribe of hippies in New York. After experiencing their Bohemian lifestyle, he must choose between his heart or his army commitment.
When Claude goes to basic training in Nevada, his adopted tribe follows him to say goodbye, but the tribe’s leader Berger is mistaken for Claude and sent to Vietnam where he dies.
Beverly D’Angelo is electric as Sheila, the hippie who catches Claude’s eye while Nell Carter, Charlotte Rae, and Nicholas Ray are delightful in small roles.
In the musical, Claude goes to Vietnam and dies, but the chaotic way Berger meets his demise and the ensuing heartbreak is a nice approximation of the random destruction of war.
This bold movie takes on feminism, classism, racism, the sexual revolution, the Vietnam War and holds no prisoners.
Three Men and a Baby (1987)
A mom abandons her newborn baby on the doorstep of the man she thinks is the father, Jack Holden (Ted Danson). His two bachelor roommates, Peter Mitchell (Tom Selleck) and Michael Kellam (Steve Guttenberg) assume this is the “package” he told them to expect. They struggle with the responsibility of parenthood, but bond with the child, before their inexplicable involvement with a drug smuggling operation threatens to tear their new family apart.
Steve Guttenberg starred in several well received and commercially successful films including Diner (1982), Cocoon (1985), and Short Circuit (1986), but when the clock turned 1990, his stagecoach reverted to a pumpkin and his career became a punch line. In recent years, he’s been reduced to reality TV stints and drumming up demand for sequels to his earlier hits, including a proposed Three Men and a Bride.
Tom Selleck is well-remembered as Thomas Magnum and Monica’s older boyfriend, Richard, but his film career never materialized. His best films are Mr. Baseball (1992), In & Out (1997), and a series of TV movies based on Robert B. Parker novels.
Like Selleck, Ted Danon’s film career has never been able to eclipse his iconic TV work.
Celeste Holm, who won an Oscar for Gentleman’s Agreement (1947) and costarred in All About Eve (1950), has a brief cameo as Jack’s mother.
It’s difficult to reconcile director Leonard Nimoy’s public persona with something this lighthearted and because of the cast, it feels like a 1980s pop culture reunion, but despite its cheesiness and nonsensical plot, I like this movie. I wore out my VHS copy as a kid and dreamed of having an apartment decorated like the one where Jack, Michael, and Peter lived. By decorated, I mean covered with hand-drawn pastel comic book paintings. This film is so wrapped up with fond memories of my childhood, I can’t claim to be impartial, but it never fails to make me smile.