I would not categorize the films of Brian De Palma as being overly clever, witty, or even all that funny (attempts to be so usually just end up being cheesy). However, this early effort was all of the above, minus the cheese. Robert De Niro and Jennifer Salt are both fine, and there are numerous smaller roles whose performers all hit just the right notes in their delivery. The opening scene with Charles Durning as a slumlord trying to rent out a dilapidated apartment to De Niro is particularly amusing.
There is also a potent (and, it must be said, somewhat misguided) radicalism to the film (which would not really reappear in De Palma's work until perhaps The Untouchables or, if not there, then certainly Casualties of War). De Niro's filmography after this work does not even come close to matching the political and social consciousness of Hi, Mom!, not even in The Deer Hunter which, like so much of De Niro's work, is mainly concerned with the personal and the psychological.
Unfortunately, it is, as mentioned, a terribly misguided radicalism obsessed with race and the pitting of the middle and upper-middle class against the poor. Stopping people as they come off the subway in New York City and demanding to know if this or that person knows what it's like to be Black in America is a stupid question to ask in the first place, and yelling at a small business owner about how he's a cog in the machine of capitalism seems similarly wrongheaded (these people are victims of the beast of capitalism too in so far as they are just trying to make a living under a rotten system like everyone else). It is hard to say sometimes whether De Palma is for or against the anti-White racism of the "Be Black Baby" theater troupe (a cinema verite play put on by the troupe involves rape and murder, so it's unlikely he is fully committed to their politics), but a healthy alternative isn't presented either.
Anyway, I would recommend checking this out. For a low budget film from 1970, the quality of the picture and sound is remarkably good.
There is also a potent (and, it must be said, somewhat misguided) radicalism to the film (which would not really reappear in De Palma's work until perhaps The Untouchables or, if not there, then certainly Casualties of War). De Niro's filmography after this work does not even come close to matching the political and social consciousness of Hi, Mom!, not even in The Deer Hunter which, like so much of De Niro's work, is mainly concerned with the personal and the psychological.
Unfortunately, it is, as mentioned, a terribly misguided radicalism obsessed with race and the pitting of the middle and upper-middle class against the poor. Stopping people as they come off the subway in New York City and demanding to know if this or that person knows what it's like to be Black in America is a stupid question to ask in the first place, and yelling at a small business owner about how he's a cog in the machine of capitalism seems similarly wrongheaded (these people are victims of the beast of capitalism too in so far as they are just trying to make a living under a rotten system like everyone else). It is hard to say sometimes whether De Palma is for or against the anti-White racism of the "Be Black Baby" theater troupe (a cinema verite play put on by the troupe involves rape and murder, so it's unlikely he is fully committed to their politics), but a healthy alternative isn't presented either.
Anyway, I would recommend checking this out. For a low budget film from 1970, the quality of the picture and sound is remarkably good.