Quartile rating: 8/10 · 1 rating
Aspiring comic Rupert Pupkin attempts to achieve success in show business by stalking his idol, a late night talk-show host who craves his own privacy.
Scorsese's deeply unsettling satire of celebrity obsession and the American dream remains prescient and singular. De Niro's Rupert Pupkin is a towering, cringe-inducing creation — delusional, pathetic, and oddly sympathetic — matched by Jerry Lewis in a rare dramatic turn that reframes his entire persona. The plot's satirical audacity (the stalker wins, essentially) was ahead of its time and has only grown more relevant in the social-media age, earning high novelty. Cinematography is competent and purposeful but not especially distinguished. The ending, while thematically pointed in its ambiguity about whether Rupert's 'success' is real or fantasy, is more provocative than fully satisfying, landing just above average.