Brian De Palma and Robert De Niro return to the Jon Rubin character from their earlier collaboration Greetings in the 1970 film Hi, Mom!, an uproarious socio-political look at a post-Vietnam NYC burgeoning with sexual awakening, home video cameras, and a rising Black pPower movement. Presented in a series of vignettes that move through Rubin’s initial attempt at documenting voyeurism in his skyrise apartment to his involvement in a theatrical production called “Be Black, Baby,” the film provides an overall narrative context but often experiments with its structure, dipping away from the main storyline for documentary footage and pointed viewpoints from other characters’ home videos and personal viewpoints. This results in a fascinating, but occasionally muddled, cinematic experience that will likely be divisive for audiences.
On the surface, Hi, Mom! seems like a pretty uncomplicated premise, and in fact the opening narrative structure sort of cements that idea – throughout the first half hour or so, the viewer falls into a lull of irreverent comedy as Rubin attempts to woo a woman in an apartment room across from him to involve her in a voyeuristic sex video he’s shooting from across the complex. But as the story moves along, and begins to arc away from the sex comedy elements it starts with, De Palma infuses more complex themes about the overarching political movements surrounding Rubin’s immediate life and paints his lurid motivations as crassly irrelevant in comparison to social injustices. Along the way, Hi, Mom! is deeply, darkly funny; De Niro is in great form here portraying an aloof, amoral galumph who eventually decides he’s better off watching film rather than making it, and the amount of laughs at the expense of his character’s lack of ethical fiber are high.
But the jokes and the almost knowingly-absurd on-the-nose original soundtrack belie De Palma and screenwriter Charles Hirsch’s topical dissection of life in the aftermath of Vietnam and the proliferation of sociological violence that became increasingly televised. Hi, Mom!‘s title is peppered throughout the movie as a reference to the incursion of video into personal space; you never know when you might see yourself on TV saying hello to your mother at home, and that theme runs throughout the work – whether it be a bunch of yuppies interviewed about how marching for the Black Power movement means they know how it is to be Black in America, or young women appearing in a peep show in seedy NYC theaters, or voluntary white people attending a haunted house of sorts where they are subjected to the kind of torment Blacks have and will experience. And as a character quite literally states in the film, these people aren’t just audience members watching a film – they’re also the participant, much like the viewer of Hi , Mom! is invited to participate in a number of first-person point of view shots.
If there’s one flaw in De Palma’s approach, it’s that the inconsistent vignette style makes Hi, Mom! feel a bit too disjointed and muddies the overall motif the film attempts to convey. This will ultimately be the major turnoff for viewers; they will either accept the various detours De Palma takes, or they will find it too distracting from the overall narrative. Regardless of this potential misstep, though, Hi, Mom! is a film bristling with undertones of ire that ends up offering a thought-provoking look at a particular era in American history; it’s an important document that, unfortunately, has long been an underrated part of De Palma’s canon.
Hi, Mom! 4K UHD Review
Radiance Films ensures Hi, Mom! languishes in relative obscurity no longer with a new 4K UHD/Blu-ray combo set. The new 4K transfer was performed by FilmFinity from the original 35mm camera negative and manages to pull a lot of detail out of the image; a medium-heavy bodied grain scale still resolves nicely especially on the UHD disc, giving a particular clarity to the NYC backdrops and showcasing excellent texture details on both skin and clothing. The film has a number of chyrons segmenting and narrating the vignettes, and these are probably the only times where the transfer shows its wear – the transitions can be a bit rough due to the optical manipulation. The UHD also sports a Dolby Vision HDR layer that adds to the color grade particularly in darker scenes, such as when Rubin attends a porno in a darkly-lit theater or accentuating the black-and-white cinematography of the “Be Black, Baby” television play. Overall, this is a very strong release on both 4K UHD and Blu-ray, and the notes state thousands of instances of debris and damage were removed during its restoration.
For audio, both UHD and disc feature an LPCM 1.0 mono track with English subtitles. The soundtrack is solid, featuring mostly stable dialogue volumes that can vary later on due to the use of the documentary footage that is meant to be more diegetic. The film’s jouncy pop songs are well-represented too.
The extras are mostly on the included Blu-ray disc, but a new audio commentary with Travis Woods is obviously included as a complement for both. This is a great listen, as Wood dives into the numerous themes throughout De Palma’s film – the more obvious overarching ones, and implied odes and Easter eggs that may be missed by viewers not well versed in the time period or the references. This is a recommended listen after viewing the film; it helps put De Palma’s ideas into an even more enlightening perspective. Also included is De Palma’s film compilation of the theatrical production Dionysus in ’69, which has been collected from digital source. A new assembly of behind-the-scenes footage from Hi, Mom! titled Son of Greetings: Behind the Scenes of Hi, Mom! is exclusive to this set and runs nearly as long as the film itself.
For interviews, critic Ellen E. Jones provides a 12-minute interview about the trajectory of De Palma’s film work starting in Hi, Mom! and discussing the various statements about the Black Power movement and race that abound in this movie. There’s also an archival interview with screenwriter Charles Hirsch who discusses the production on the film, the low budget and sneaking around shooting, and the topic of radicalization of Rubin’s character after his stint in Vietnam post-Greetings. A trailer is also included on the Blu-ray disc.
This set also includes a booklet featuring a new essay by critic Matt Zoller Seitz. In it, he documents more of the various themes in De Palma’s filmography including his homages to Hitchcock, as well as pointing out the nods to particular skit shows of the time such as The Smothers Brothers Comedy Show. He also notes the film’s X rating before De Palma’s removal of the male full-frontal nudity earned it a hard R (that nudity is now restored in this version).
Extra Features
- NEW 4K restoration from the original camera negative, presented in Dolby Vision HDR
- 4K UHD and Blu-ray presentation of the feature; world premiere on 4K UHD
- Uncompressed mono audio
- NEW Audio commentary by writer Travis Woods
- NEW Interview with critic Ellen E Jones (1080p; 12:23)
- Dionysus in ‘69 – an experimental theater production of Euripides’ ‘The Bacchae’, filmed by Brian de Palma (1080p; 1:25:27)
- Son of Greetings – behind-the-scenes footage from the making of Hi, Mom! by filmmaker Peter Davis, featuring candid images of the cast and crew (1080i; 1:16:29)
- Archival interview with co-writer Charles Hirsch (1080p; 9:41)
- Trailer (1080p; 1:56)
- Optional English SDH subtitle track
- NEW Reversible sleeve featuring artwork based on original posters
- NEW Limited edition booklet featuring writing by Matt Zoller Seitz
- Limited edition of 5000 copies, presented in full-height Scanavo packaging with removable OBI strip leaving packaging free of certificates and markings
Verdict
Hi, Mom! is essential viewing for fans of De Palma’s filmography or Robert De Niro’s acting, and this release from Radiance Films provides an excellent video transfer in 4K as well as a number of illuminating extra features on the thematic extent of this classic work. Recommended.
Listen to our podcast episode on the film:
