The King of Comedy

Friday, May 18 - Monday, May 21, 2018

DCP Projection

“Scorsese and De Niro have been pushing each other so far for so long that audience polarisation now automatically accompanies the risk of their major-league collaboration. The King of Comedy guarantees a split even at the level of expectations: it’s definitively not a comedy, despite being hilarious; it pays acute homage to Jerry Lewis, while requiring of the man no hint of slapstick infantilism; its uniquely repellent prize nerd is De Niro himself. The excruciating tone is set by an early freeze-frame of fingernails frantically scraping glass. Flinch here, and you’re out, because Scorsese never does while detailing fantasist Rupert Pupkin’s squirmily obsessive desperation to crash TV’s real-time as a stand-up comic on the Carson-modelled Jerry Langford Show. Buttonholing its star (Lewis), then rebounding from brush-offs to hatch a ludicrous kidnap plot, De Niro’s Pupkin isn’t merely socially inadequate; he’s a whole dimension short – happily rehearsing with cardboard cut-outs, choosing the flatness of videoscreen space for his schmucky jester’s tilt at being ‘king for a night’. Whereas the film itself is all unexpected dimensions and unsettling excesses, with the ambiguous fulfilment of Pupkin’s dream frighteningly echoing the news-headline coda of Taxi Driver. Creepiest movie of the year in every sense, and one of the best.” – Time Out (London)

Screening as part of our Waverly Midnight series, Scorsese.

• Country USA
• Year 1982
• Running Time 109 minutes
• Director Martin Scorsese
• Cast Robert De Niro, Jerry Lewis

IFC Center does not generally provide advisories about subject matter or potentially triggering content in films, as sensitivities vary from person to person. In addition to the synopses, trailers and other links on our website, further information about content and age-appropriateness for specific films can be found on Common Sense Media, IMDb and DoesTheDogDie.com as well as through general internet searches.