Hi, Mom! Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		3.0
Video		4.0
Audio		4.0
Extras		1.0
Overall		3.0

Hi, Mom! Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman December 2, 2018

Note: This film is available as part of De Palma & De Niro: The Early Films.

Brian De Palma and Robert De Niro share a lot more than just that “De” in their last names. The two forged their early film careers at least partially in tandem, and both have of course gone on to become rather monolithic characters in the world of modern cinema. Perhaps precisely because of their outsized reputations, it may be hard to think of either of them as “beginners”, but the appealing if sometimes kind of unexpectedly provocative movies gathered together in this intriguing new set by Arrow show them in the process of learning their craft(s), and as such there’s a perhaps more intimate, visceral feeling attending these early efforts than in some of either of these artist’s later, glossier, outings. While The Wedding Party bears a 1969 release date, putatively dating it after 1968’s Greetings, from a production standpoint it actually predates the other two films in this set by several years, since it was evidently actually shot in 1963 but languished unreleased for several years. It was in fact the unexpected (if “minor” by today’s standards) success of Greetings that helped, at least in part, to garner attention for The Wedding Party. Hi, Mom! is actually a direct sequel to Greetings, and features De Niro reprising his role as troubled Vietnam vet Jon Rubin, in a film one talking head in a supplement included in this set likens to “Taxi Driver light”.

De Palma is frequently accused of mimicking Hitchcock, but there is an almost Godardian flavor to parts of Hi, Mom!, with intercutting between a supposed “documentary” and a rather radicalized political subtext that will probably strike fans of Godard’s late sixties “screeds” as at least somewhat familiar feeling. De Niro is back as vet Jon Rubin, and the voyeuristic aspect that cropped up in Greetings is back here on steroids, as Rubin rents an apartment that has a Rear Window -esque view of various shenanigans going on in a bunch of other apartments across the way. There’s a soft porn aspect to Rubin’s filmmaking attempts, especially as he attempts to finagle a deal with smut peddler named Joe Banner (Allen Garfield). Rubin gets involved with a girl named Judy Bishop (Jennifer Salt), one of the people he’s been spying on, but the most pointed content here is with regard to an off (off off) Broadway show called Be Black, Baby! that Rubin gets involved with. This aspect may fascinate some who have been challenged by some recent surreal takes on the so-called “Black experience” in America like Get Out and Sorry to Bother You. The film never really gels, but it’s often viscerally unsettling, and it certainly shows De Palma really starting to explore some “meta” issues that his long cinematic interest in voyeurism almost unavoidably raise.

Hi, Mom! Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Hi, Mom! is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Arrow Video with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.85:1. Arrow's insert booklet contains the following verbiage on the restoration:

Hi, Mom! has been exclusively restored by Arrow Films for this release and is presented in its original aspect ratio of 1.85:1 with mono audio. An original 35mm interpositive element was scanned in 2K resolution on a Lasergraphics Director at EFilm, Burbank. The film was graded on Digital Vision's Nucoda Film Master and restored at R3Store Studios in London. The original mono mix was remastered by MGM.

All materials for this restoration were made available by MGM.

As can perhaps be gleaned from some of the screenshots accompanying this review, along with my description of Rubin as a voyeuristic filmaker and mention of a supposed "documentary" presented within the film itself, Hi, Mom! has arguably the most variable presentation of the three in this set, but with an understanding of the various source elements and post production tweaks, it's another very winning and nicely organic looking offering. There's definitely a smaller format look to a lot of the interstitial material, including Rubin's spying camerawork, some "television" moments and the black and white documentary, all of which can be seen in some of the screenshots. The main part of the film generally has good detail levels, but sometimes De Palma's on the fly focus pulling isn't the strongest (see screenshot 9). The palette is reasonably well saturated, though perhaps a tad on the cool side at times. Grain resolves naturally throughout with no compression issues.

Hi, Mom! Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Hi, Mom! features an LPCM Mono track which shows a few variabilities in amplitude and overall fidelity, at least some of which I attribute to the "baked in" aspects of the many interstitial things like television news broadcasts and the documentary. Eric Kaz's score also sounds full bodied and encounters no significant issues. The film's long dialogue sections are all rendered cleanly and clearly without any problems whatsoever.

Hi, Mom! Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

Arrow has packaged this set with Greetings and The Wedding Party sharing a disc, and with Hi, Mom! on its own disc. Supplements on each disc are therefore not necessarily devoted solely to any given film (this includes the interviews with Charles Hirsch, which can momentarily veer off into tangential information), and so I'm providing a list of all supplements on both discs in this set on all three reviews of the films included in the set:

Disc One contains The Wedding Party and Greetings and the following supplements:

• Greetings Audio Commentary by Glenn Kenny


• Brian De Palma: Early Years (1080p; 11:41) is a new appreciation of De Palma (and De Niro) by Howard S. Berger.


• Charles Hirsch on Greetings (1080p; 11:47) is an engaging interview with the producer.


• Greetings Press Book (1080p)

Disc Two contains Hi, Mom! and the following supplements:

• Charles Hirsch on Hi, Mom! (1080p; 11:47) continues the interview with the producer.


• Theatrical Trailer (1080p; 1:54)

Hi, Mom! Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Hi, Mom! probably tries a bit too hard to do a few too many things, and as such it's arguably the most diffused feeling film in this set. I'm not sure De Niro really captures the complete gamut of what De Palma was aiming for here, but that said, it also feels like De Palma couldn't quite make up his mind what kind of film he really wanted to make. Technical merits are generally fine for those considering a purchase.