Both deliciously funny and scary as hell; Martin Scorsese's The King of Comedy is a work of ingenious, prophetic wisdom and focus. Both grounded and elevated by one of Robert De Niro's finest performances, the film slivers and slides through different forms of deconstruction and satire until the final irony hits like a ton of bricks.

Martin Scorsese's direction is magnificent here. While not as classical as Raging Bull or as lush as Taxi Driver, It feels just as pure, mainly when the camera decides to watch Rupert Pupkin in all his mesmerizing and terrifying glory. Both hilarious and creepy, De Niro embodies this complex character with glorious quirkiness and a sense of childish playfulness. In particular, the scenes involving…

Better to be king for a night than schmuck for a lifetime.
-Rupert Pupkin

Vito Corleone, Travis Bickle, Jake La Motta and... Rupert Pupkin. Those names are not mentioned together nearly often enough. The King of Comedy is one of Robert De Niro's greatest performances and his most underrated collaboration with director Martin Scorsese. Sure people here praise the film, but it's overwhelming how many people have never seen this.

De Niro's performance is so genuine that there's several scenes in the film that I find incredibly hard to watch. It's like seeing a real person filled with desperation for validation and receiving nothing but rejection time and again. At first it just looks like Pupkin is simply obsessed with…

Movies 2018 - 200. The King of Comedy (1982; written by Paul D. Zimmerman; directed by Martin Scorsese)

🌮🌮🌮🌮 (4 tacos)

An aspiring comedian becomes obsessed with a legendary late night variety show host. The King of Comedy may be one of the best dark comedies I have ever seen, while also being a scary foretelling of the obsession with celebrity. Upon its initial release, Martin Scorsese’s film wasn’t widely well-received. While critics may have liked it, audiences did not respond well to it. I think I can kind of understand that. The King of Comedy is pretty unpredictable, especially considering the creative team involved. Robert De Niro delivers a wonderfully bizarre performance as Rupert Pupkin, a no doubt mentally…

One of the most interesting things about this is watching how Jerry Lewis integrates some of his old mannerisms and body language into this otherwise severe character. He has the posture of Buddy Love, runs in that same goofy stop-start manner as any of his comic characters, and even does a classic Lewis double-take when he gets a gun pointed in his face. All of this is pretty subtle, but I think it elevates the movie that much more, because it’s not just a character study of Rupert Pupkin and his obsessive delusions, but rather, a film about people who never stop performing, masking their own personalities in lieu of being honest with themselves. So for people who are familiar…