Hi, Mom!

Hi, Mom!
1970 Sigma III Productions & Orion Pictures; distributed to DVD by MGM.
Starring: Robert De Niro, Allen Garfield, Jennifer Salt, Lara Parker, Paul Bartel, Charles Durning, Gerrit Graham
Director: Brian De Palma
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Robert De Niro reprises his character of Jon Rubin, which he first played in 1968's Greetings. Here, Rubin lives in New York City, and is an aspiring adult filmmaker whose grand idea is to post cameras at his windows and record the activities of his neighbors. This plan fails when Rubin doesn't shoot any usable footage for a project that producer Joe Banner (Garfield) plans to release, and he fails to seduce the widow Judy (Salt) to get what he wants. Instead, Jon teams up with his neighbor Gerrit Wood (Graham) for an avant garde presentation called "Be Black, Baby!", where African American actors invite caucasians to experience what it's like to be black, baby. The presentation breaks down into chaos, with the white audience members attacked and humiliated, but somehow, is a critical success.

MGM did a great job restoring the film for DVD. It's also unusual to watch Brian De Palma directing a straight comedy film with a young Robert De Niro in the lead role, doing a great job as the socially awkward peeping tom trying to turn his fetish into a filmmaking career. Recommended DVD.