Hi, Mom!

Hi, Mom! follows Robert De Niro’s Jon Rubin, an aimless Vietnam vet, as he rents a rundown flat in Greenwich Village and subsequently begins filming people in the building across the way, with the lackadaisical narrative detailing Jon’s exploits and adventures through New York City’s anarchic, anti-war underground. Like Murder a la Mod and Greetings before it, Hi, Mom! suffers from an almost painfully meandering and off-the-wall vibe that grows more and more infuriating as time slowly progresses. And although the movie is, at the outset, not quite the intolerable experience one might’ve anticipated – De Niro’s energetic performance is attention-grabbing, to be sure – Hi, Mom!‘s excessively improvisatory atmosphere ensures that the viewer’s efforts at embracing the central character fall flat at every single turn (ie he’s just too zany to become wholeheartedly or even partially sympathetic). De Palma compounds the film’s less-than-watchable vibe by increasingly emphasizing elements of an overtly political nature, with, especially, the filmmaker’s decision to stress the activities of a black radical group paving the way for an absolutely interminable final half hour. It’s ultimately difficult to recall a more dated, irrelevant film than Hi, Mom!, and there’s little doubt that the movie has lost whatever cache it may have once possessed in the 40 years since its original theatrical release.

* out of ****