Hi, Mom! (1970)

Hi, Mom!: Directed by Brian De Palma. With Charles Durning, Robert De Niro, Allen Garfield, Abraham Goren. A Vietnam vet moves into an apartment and peers through other people’s windows across the street, meets one of the women, and discovers Black theater.

“I rated this movie in the middle only because I feel there were two distinct parts to the movie with an indecisive end. The first part, with Robert De Niro prominent is very funny, at time uproariously so. (The opening with Charles Durning is priceless.) The part with the theater of u0026quot;Be Black Babyu0026quot; was pretty strong stuff, even today. It was real and scary and had no relationship to the first part. This part was really tense and made me shudder several times.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eThe problem I had was what did the De Niro part have to do with the u0026quot;Be Black Babyu0026quot; part. Maybe I am old-fashioned and wanted something more linear or, really, coherent. Perhaps the appeal of this movie is the lack of obedience to strictures. I do applaud that kind of freedom, but only when it works. I laughed and cringed during what felt like a double feature. Both parts work very well. But together they make an uneasy mix.”