King of Comedy (1982) Review

Title: King of Comedy
Year: 1982
Director: Martin Scorsese
Country: US
Language: English

In 2019 Todd Phillips Joker shocked audiences and impressed critics worldwide with its seemingly "unique" vision of the clown prince starring Joaquin Phoenix. Nominated for many Oscars, a great number of people pointed out that the film was cross between Martin Scorsese's classics; Taxi Driver (1976) and King of Comedy (1982). I had seen Taxi Driver before, but not the latter. Thus I found myself enticed to watch King of Comedy. 

Rupert Pupkin (Robert De Niro) is a passionate yet unsuccessful comic who craves nothing more than to be in the spotlight and to achieve this, he stalks and kidnaps his idol (Jerry Lewis) to take the spotlight for himself.

Years before Cape Feare (1991), De Niro manages to perfectly capture the fractured mind of a mentally ill, and possibly challenged, creep of a man. King of Comedy will make your skin crawl in a way that only the most eerie of horror flicks will do. Pupkin is wounded and painful to watch; we try to sympathize with our main character, but ultimately he is a lost cause. 

Unlike other Scorsese films, like Goodfellas (1991) & Hugo (2011), King of Comedy is not a fun movie, infact its pretty unpleasant to watch. A satire, Scorsese's principle targets are television and the cult status of celebrity. Paul D. Zimmerman's screenplay is critical of audiences who cling onto every famous person they possibly can. He challenges the power of television and critiques its contribution to the downfall of society. 

King of Comedy was a decent movie, but, like Joker & Taxi Driver, it is far too depressing to watch a second time. Luis Bunuel could make similar satire and leave you not feeling like complete crap. Watch a Bunuel film instead.