A thirty-four-year-old aspiring comic still living at home, Rupert Pupkin studies obsessively to be a talk show guest, despite having no discernible talent other than a desperate need for attention. When he finally meets his talk show host idol, he spots an opportunity for him to reach his dream of stardom. Both grounded and elevated by one of Robert De Niro’s finest performances, Scorsese’s dark comedy is an unnerving satire of dead-end celebrity culture and the American late-night comedy circuit.

Reviews

‘This film about the cult of celebrity in America strikes me as a uniquely intelligent ironic masterpiece – though, witty as it is, it isn’t a comedy, despite what the title and the casting of Jerry Lewis might lead you to expect.’
★★★★★
Philip Horne, The Telegraph

‘It’s very funny, and it ends on a high note that was, for me, both a total surprise and completely satisfying. Yet it’s also bristly, sometimes manic to the edge of lunacy and, along the way, terrifying.’
Vincent Canby, The New York Times