18th Mofo Hall of Fame

I feel like the story is mostly pretty straight forward, but I do like the arc of Hanks’ character, who seems distanced to his family but deeply dedicated to his job; these two things slowly change sides throughout the story, ending in his own death. While I’m fine with the ending being nicely folded together by a sentimental voice-over, I’m not necessarily a fan of the predictable and rather perplexing ending at the beach house. While my comments on the character’s arc above could be one way of explaining either his sudden unawareness or his purposely “necessary” sacrifice to the criminal world, I still think it to be weird that Hanks would just “forget” about the killer hunting him earlier. Again, it could be one of the two previously mentioned reasons, as to why he ended up dead and thereby didn’t “forget”. But honestly, I doubt it. The film isn’t exactly subtle throughout, so why should it suddenly become so? Therefore, I feel it is completely out of character for Hanks to suddenly “forget” about the killer or think it is all over because he killed almost everybody, including the man that had him on contract.

I feel like the story is mostly pretty straight forward, but I do like the arc of Hanks’ character, who seems distanced to his family but deeply dedicated to his job; these two things slowly change sides throughout the story, ending in his own death. While I’m fine with the ending being nicely folded together by a sentimental voice-over, I’m not necessarily a fan of the predictable and rather perplexing ending at the beach house. While my comments on the character’s arc above could be one way of explaining either his sudden unawareness or his purposely “necessary” sacrifice to the criminal world, I still think it to be weird that Hanks would just “forget” about the killer hunting him earlier. Again, it could be one of the two previously mentioned reasons, as to why he ended up dead and thereby didn’t “forget”. But honestly, I doubt it. The film isn’t exactly subtle throughout, so why should it suddenly become so? Therefore, I feel it is completely out of character for Hanks to suddenly “forget” about the killer or think it is all over because he killed almost everybody, including the man that had him on contract.

I know Scorsese didn’t write the script, but he really picks movies that has those monumental endings, which pulls the rug from under you and let the curtain fall before you have time to digest it. Scorsese is like a cinematic con artist, playing tricks on our minds and morals. I loved how the ending of ‘The Wolf of Wall Street’ made us ashamed and disgusted at ourselves for having such a great time with such a grim person for three hours straight. In ‘The King of Comedy’ we smile awkwardly as Rupert Pupkin succeeds in his quest to become a great comedian… for one night only. And Scorsese continues to implement the backstory of our main character into the comedy within the comedy. We sympathize with this sick bastard somehow and even when he gets out of jail after serving time for his wrongdoings, people still cheer him on. I mean, I cheered him on… I think.

I know Scorsese didn’t write the script, but he really picks movies that has those monumental endings, which pulls the rug from under you and let the curtain fall before you have time to digest it. Scorsese is like a cinematic con artist, playing tricks on our minds and morals. I loved how the ending of ‘The Wolf of Wall Street’ made us ashamed and disgusted at ourselves for having such a great time with such a grim person for three hours straight. In ‘The King of Comedy’ we smile awkwardly as Rupert Pupkin succeeds in his quest to become a great comedian… for one night only. And Scorsese continues to implement the backstory of our main character into the comedy within the comedy. We sympathize with this sick bastard somehow and even when he gets out of jail after serving time for his wrongdoings, people still cheer him on. I mean, I cheered him on… I think.