The one and only Pam Grier will be honored by Cinema St. Louis with a ‘Women in Film Award’ when she’s in town for this year’s St. Louis International Film Festival. Pam’s iconic movie career began when she moved to Los Angeles in the late ‘60s from her native North Carolina at age 18. After a tiny role in Russ Meyer’s Beyond The Valley Of The Dolls (1970), she landed a job as a receptionist for American International Pictures where she was discovered by Jack Hill, an Aip director who cast her in a pair of women’s prison films: The Big Doll House (1971) and The Big Bird Cage (1972). Soon she was known as the “Queen of Blaxploitation” at a time when film roles for African-American women were, as Grier puts it, “practically invisible, or painfully stereotypical”.
Sliff, which runs Nov. 2nd-12th will kick off with...
Sliff, which runs Nov. 2nd-12th will kick off with...
- 10/12/2017
- by Tom Stockman
- WeAreMovieGeeks.com
There is a very fine performance embedded in Taylor Hackford’s otherwise enervating, overlong, patience-trying, and not very funny film The Comedian. However, that performance is not delivered by the putative headliner, Robert De Niro. He plays Jackie Burke, a comic who once starred in a popular sitcom, but is now reduced to playing small comedy clubs and participating in “Nostalgia Nights” with similarly faded TV stars (such as Jimmie Walker and Brooke Burke, who play themselves in cameos). Instead, one of the very few reasons to watch The Comedian is for Leslie Mann, who plays Harmony, Jackie’s eventual love interest (despite an almost 30-year age difference). They meet cute while working at a food pantry, both of them doing community service for similar crimes of physical assault. Harmony is the one credible character in the film, one who could conceivably...
[Read the whole post on screenanarchy.com...]...
[Read the whole post on screenanarchy.com...]...
- 2/8/2017
- Screen Anarchy
An Officer and a Gentleman, The Devil’s Advocate and Ray are just three of the movies in director Taylor Hackford’s illustrious career, although his one Oscar was for a short film he made much earlier in his career.
For Hackford’s latest movie, The Comedian, he directs Robert De Niro as Jackie Burke, a veteran comedian and star of a popular old TV sitcom, who is trying to find a new lease on life, which actually ends up with him being thrown in jail for assaulting a heckler. While doing community service, he meets Leslie Mann’s Harmony and he shares with her his love for stand-up, although her father (Harvey Keitel) doesn’t approve of the relationship.
If you ever wondered whether De Niro can do stand-up comedy, you get a lot of opportunities to see him performing mostly insult comedy ala Jeffrey Ross (who was involved...
For Hackford’s latest movie, The Comedian, he directs Robert De Niro as Jackie Burke, a veteran comedian and star of a popular old TV sitcom, who is trying to find a new lease on life, which actually ends up with him being thrown in jail for assaulting a heckler. While doing community service, he meets Leslie Mann’s Harmony and he shares with her his love for stand-up, although her father (Harvey Keitel) doesn’t approve of the relationship.
If you ever wondered whether De Niro can do stand-up comedy, you get a lot of opportunities to see him performing mostly insult comedy ala Jeffrey Ross (who was involved...
- 2/3/2017
- by Edward Douglas
- LRMonline.com
Edie Falco has been in the news a lot lately. Mainly because she’s starring in a new movie with Robert De Niro called “The Comedian.” The Taylor Hackford film hasn’t gotten rave reviews but it does mark a return to the screen for Falco who we haven’t seen much since Nurse Jackie ended. The Comedian follows the story of Jackie Burke (Robert De Niro), an aging comic icon, who has seen better days. Despite his efforts to reinvent himself and his comic genius, the audience only wants to know him as the former television character he once played. Already a
Edie Falco Reveals What She Really Thinks Happened to Nurse Jackie...
Edie Falco Reveals What She Really Thinks Happened to Nurse Jackie...
- 2/3/2017
- by Nat Berman
- TVovermind.com
Nearly 35 years ago DeNiro truly stunned film fans (yes, he could do that back then) when they learned of his next big screen collaboration with Martin Scorsese. It was crazy enough that the duo would follow the brutal one-two punch of Mean Streets and Taxi Driver with a glossy homage to big splashy MGM-style movie musicals, New York, New York, but this? They seemed to be back in their comfort zone with the classic Raging Bull, when they made another big detour. A look at comedy, namely a portrait of a failed stand-up comic (he’d be dubbed a “hack” today) named Rupert Pupkin. 1982’s The King Of Comedy even co-starred the iconic Jerry Lewis, who often claimed that royal title. The film was then considered a box office flop, but the years have been most kind to it (in stand-up parlance, maybe it was “too hip for the room”). Now,...
- 2/3/2017
- by Jim Batts
- WeAreMovieGeeks.com
Given its title and cast of comedic powerhouses, you’d think that The Comedian would at the very least be funny – right? In a strange turn of fate, it’s actually the drama in this film that succeeds while the raunchy comedy fails to hit the mark. Half the jokes that do elicit a chuckle also leave you feeling a tad bit guilty since it’s mostly insult humor in the vein of Comedy Central roasts. Not surprisingly, veteran roaster Jeffrey Ross helped with the scripting. It’s just too bad that the material in here isn’t as good as what he normally brings to the microphone.
Aging New York City comedian and former sitcom star Jackie Burke (Robert De Niro) wants nothing more than to re-invent himself as a stand-up comic. But the only people interested in seeing him perform don’t want Jackie Burke. They want to see Eddie,...
Aging New York City comedian and former sitcom star Jackie Burke (Robert De Niro) wants nothing more than to re-invent himself as a stand-up comic. But the only people interested in seeing him perform don’t want Jackie Burke. They want to see Eddie,...
- 2/2/2017
- by Joseph Hernandez
- We Got This Covered
It’s been years, even decades, since watching Robert De Niro attempt comedy could be counted as any kind of novelty. But it’s still strange to consider the way De Niro has developed a parallel career as an awkward comedian, from his unhinged aspiring stand-up in The King Of Comedy to the self-parodying shtick of Analyze This to his unexpectedly recurring gig as a stiff but game Saturday Night Live host and drop-in.
De Niro’s role in The Comedian is more straightforward. The conception of Jackie Burke, a foulmouthed stand-up comic at a career dead end after a successful but pigeonholing sitcom gig, never winks at the legendary actor’s past, either in dramas or comedies. Even so, the uncomfortable yet not unwelcome spectacle of De Niro attempting zingers makes this movie an essential subject for future study of the actor’s comic side. Unfortunately, it is essential...
De Niro’s role in The Comedian is more straightforward. The conception of Jackie Burke, a foulmouthed stand-up comic at a career dead end after a successful but pigeonholing sitcom gig, never winks at the legendary actor’s past, either in dramas or comedies. Even so, the uncomfortable yet not unwelcome spectacle of De Niro attempting zingers makes this movie an essential subject for future study of the actor’s comic side. Unfortunately, it is essential...
- 2/2/2017
- by Jesse Hassenger
- avclub.com
Actress Leslie Mann is an absolutely lovely person to talk to if you ever get a chance. To many, she’s become better known as Mrs. Judd Apatow and the mother of two daughters who have famously stolen scenes from her in his comedies Knocked Up and This is 40. In fact, she’s been a fairly active comedic actress for quite some time and since her last movie with her husband, she’s appeared in movies like The Bling Ring, How to Be Single, The Other Woman and more.
For The Comedian, a new comedy directed by Taylor Hackford (Ray), Mann is paired with Robert De Niro as the love interest to his stand-up comic Jackie Burke, who meets her character Harmony Schultz when he’s at a low point in life, forced to work at a soup kitchen as community service for attacking a heckler. Jackie and Harmony...
For The Comedian, a new comedy directed by Taylor Hackford (Ray), Mann is paired with Robert De Niro as the love interest to his stand-up comic Jackie Burke, who meets her character Harmony Schultz when he’s at a low point in life, forced to work at a soup kitchen as community service for attacking a heckler. Jackie and Harmony...
- 2/1/2017
- by Edward Douglas
- LRMonline.com
Wamg is giving away one signed poster for The Comedian, the upcoming movie starring Robert De Niro! Don’t miss De Niro, Leslie Mann, and Danny DeVito in director Taylor Hackford’s new film.
An aging comic icon, Jackie Burke (Robert De Niro) has seen better days. Despite his efforts to reinvent himself and his comic genius, the audience only wants to know him as the former television character he once played.
Already a strain on his younger brother (Danny DeVito) and his wife (Patti LuPone), Jackie is forced to serve out a sentence doing community service for accosting an audience member.
While there, he meets Harmony (Leslie Mann), the daughter of a sleazy Florida real estate mogul (Harvey Keitel), and the two find inspiration in one another resulting in surprising consequences.
Through the alchemy of their unlikely friendship, Harmony and Jackie overcome their own emotional damage and emerge as better people.
An aging comic icon, Jackie Burke (Robert De Niro) has seen better days. Despite his efforts to reinvent himself and his comic genius, the audience only wants to know him as the former television character he once played.
Already a strain on his younger brother (Danny DeVito) and his wife (Patti LuPone), Jackie is forced to serve out a sentence doing community service for accosting an audience member.
While there, he meets Harmony (Leslie Mann), the daughter of a sleazy Florida real estate mogul (Harvey Keitel), and the two find inspiration in one another resulting in surprising consequences.
Through the alchemy of their unlikely friendship, Harmony and Jackie overcome their own emotional damage and emerge as better people.
- 1/31/2017
- by Movie Geeks
- WeAreMovieGeeks.com
Halloween apparently comes early this year — February offers a quartet of promising horror movies, not to mention the latest chapter in the Fifty Shades erotic saga (which is its own sort of horror). Add to that a rare appearance from An-Actually-Trying-and-Not-Phoning-It-In Robert De Niro, a pair of extremely promising sequels, an experimental indie about a mass murderer and an Oscar-nominated documentary, and the next four weeks starts to look a bounty no matter your taste. Here's what coming soon to a theater near you in the next month.
A Cure For Wellness (Feb.
A Cure For Wellness (Feb.
- 1/31/2017
- Rollingstone.com
It is almost impossible to watch The Comedian, in which Robert De Niro plays a washed-up TV sitcom star named Jackie Burke, and not think about The King Of Comedy. Although that savagely biting 1983 Martin Scorsese classic was wildly different, it also featured De Niro as a delusional wannabe stand-up comic who kidnaps talk show host Jerry Lewis. I will take Rupert Pupkin, warts and all, any day, compared to spending more time with the miserable and angry Burke, who winds…...
- 1/30/2017
- Deadline
Comedians and actors came together for the premiere of Taylor Hackford’s film The Comedian at Pacific Design Center’s Silver Screen Theatre in Los Angeles.
The buzz around the red carpet Friday evening was how the life of a comedian is incredibly challenging, but that those challenges and setbacks should not discourage those pursuing it. Similar to Robert De Niro's character's (Jackie Burke) attempts toward reinvention, De Niro shared his advice to aspiring comedians.
“Just keep at it and keep plugging away. Work hard and don’t give up,” the film's lead told The Hollywood Reporter.
Colleague and longtime comedian Jimmie Walker, who...
The buzz around the red carpet Friday evening was how the life of a comedian is incredibly challenging, but that those challenges and setbacks should not discourage those pursuing it. Similar to Robert De Niro's character's (Jackie Burke) attempts toward reinvention, De Niro shared his advice to aspiring comedians.
“Just keep at it and keep plugging away. Work hard and don’t give up,” the film's lead told The Hollywood Reporter.
Colleague and longtime comedian Jimmie Walker, who...
- 1/29/2017
- by Fatema Etemadi
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Star Wars Episode VIII title revealed, The Comedian clips and more make our daily round-upStar Wars Episode VIII title revealed, The Comedian clips and more make our daily round-upGarrett McCormick1/23/2017 4:28:00 Pm
Check out Cineplex's daily round-up featuring the latest movie news!
The Comedian
The legendary Robert De Niro plays comedy icon gone bad, Jackie Burke in the upcoming film The Comedian.
Jackie Burke is tired of audiences only knowing him from a hit TV show he starred in a long time ago, so he tries to reinvent himself. Unfortunately he establishes himself as a man with a temper after punching an audience member in the face.
Sentenced to community service, Jackie meets Harmony (Leslie Mann) and they build an unlikely friendship on the path to Jackie’s climb back to fame.
The Comedian hits Cineplex theatres February 3rd – Watch the clips below:
The Nut Job 2
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Check out Cineplex's daily round-up featuring the latest movie news!
The Comedian
The legendary Robert De Niro plays comedy icon gone bad, Jackie Burke in the upcoming film The Comedian.
Jackie Burke is tired of audiences only knowing him from a hit TV show he starred in a long time ago, so he tries to reinvent himself. Unfortunately he establishes himself as a man with a temper after punching an audience member in the face.
Sentenced to community service, Jackie meets Harmony (Leslie Mann) and they build an unlikely friendship on the path to Jackie’s climb back to fame.
The Comedian hits Cineplex theatres February 3rd – Watch the clips below:
The Nut Job 2
We’re going...
- 1/23/2017
- by Garrett McCormick
- Cineplex
Remember when Robert De Niro starred as wannabe standup comic Rupert Pupkin in Martin Scorsese's classic The King of Comedy. Since Pupkin was a full-time sociopath, it came as huge surprise when this amateur had the goods to make a go at his five minutes of fame. As Jackie Burke in The Comedian, De Niro is playing a pro, an aging comic who long ago made his bones doing stand-up and starring in a hit TV sitcom, Eddie's Home, that fans won’t let him forget. De Niro got under the skin of Pupkin.
- 11/30/2016
- Rollingstone.com
The Comedian, starring Robert De Niro, will open the Capri Hollywood Film Festival on Dec. 27 in its European premiere.
The film, directed by Taylor Hackford (Ray), stars De Niro as aging insult comic Jackie Burke, who gets a second lease on life after meeting Harmony (Leslie Mann). The two find inspiration in each other, and his resulting new material finds the formerly has-been comic going viral.
An all-star supporting cast includes Edie Falco, Billy Crystal, Danny DeVito, Charles Grodin, Cloris Leachman, Harvey Keitel and Patti LuPone. Art Linson, Jeff Ross, Richard Lagravenese and Lewis Friedman wrote the screenplay. It opens...
The film, directed by Taylor Hackford (Ray), stars De Niro as aging insult comic Jackie Burke, who gets a second lease on life after meeting Harmony (Leslie Mann). The two find inspiration in each other, and his resulting new material finds the formerly has-been comic going viral.
An all-star supporting cast includes Edie Falco, Billy Crystal, Danny DeVito, Charles Grodin, Cloris Leachman, Harvey Keitel and Patti LuPone. Art Linson, Jeff Ross, Richard Lagravenese and Lewis Friedman wrote the screenplay. It opens...
- 11/29/2016
- by Ariston Anderson
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
An aging comic icon, Jackie Burke (Robert De Niro) has seen better days. Despite his efforts to reinvent himself and his comic genius, the audience only wants to know him as the former television character he once played. Already a strain on his younger brother (Danny DeVito) and his wife (Patti LuPone), Jackie is forced to serve out a sentence doing community service for accosting an audience member. While there, he meets Harmony (Leslie Mann), the daughter of a sleazy Florida real estate mogul (Harvey Keitel), and the two find inspiration in one another resulting in surprising consequences. Through the alchemy of their unlikely friendship, Harmony and Jackie overcome their own emotional damage and emerge as better people.
Jackie Burke, embodied by De Niro in The Comedian, has been struggling for years to get back to the place he most wants to be—at the mic in a club where...
Jackie Burke, embodied by De Niro in The Comedian, has been struggling for years to get back to the place he most wants to be—at the mic in a club where...
- 11/23/2016
- by Michelle McCue
- WeAreMovieGeeks.com
“Do you want a job, or do you want to be an ass?” “Do I have to choose?” Here is a trailer for The Comedian, Robert De Niro’s long-gestating passion project in which he plays an aging former comedy star trying to reinvent himself. Jackie Burke once had a TV show and better life. After he assaults a guy he caught taping his old-school, insult-heavy stand-up act, the comic gets community service. There he meets Harmony (Leslie Mann), the daughter of a sleazebag real estate…...
- 11/22/2016
- Deadline TV
Can Robert De Niro pull off a stand-up comic? Academy Award-winning director Taylor Hackford (“Ray,” “An Officer and a Gentleman”) seems to think so. In his latest film, De Niro plays celebrity comic Jackie Burke, a hot-tempered stand-up who’s sentenced to 100 hours of community service after punching an audience member. There, he meets Harmony (Leslie Mann), an unlikely love interest and the daughter of one of his contemporaries, played by Harvey Keitel. The rest of the cast includes Danny DeVito, Cloris Leachman, Edie Falco and Charles Grodin.
Read More: ‘The Comedian’ Critical Roundup: Robert De Niro’s Latest Film About An Aging Insult Comic Garners Early Negative Reviews
“I saw the movie as a dark drama with some comedy,” Hackford told EW, “but then we tested it with an audience, and they really laughed hard. So better to call it a dark comedy with drama.”
IndieWire’s own Ben Travers...
Read More: ‘The Comedian’ Critical Roundup: Robert De Niro’s Latest Film About An Aging Insult Comic Garners Early Negative Reviews
“I saw the movie as a dark drama with some comedy,” Hackford told EW, “but then we tested it with an audience, and they really laughed hard. So better to call it a dark comedy with drama.”
IndieWire’s own Ben Travers...
- 11/21/2016
- by Graham Winfrey
- Indiewire
The first trailer has been released for Robert De Niro's upcoming dark comedy The Comedian. De Niro stars as "a once-edgy Don Rickles-like stand-up named Jackie Burke. After a successful but safe run on a television sitcom, Jackie charts his haphazard return to the insult-comedy boards."
This isn't the first time that De Niro has played a comedian. Back in In 1983 he starred in a film called The King of Comedy, in which he played Rupert Pupkin, who desperately wanted to be a stand-up comic.
The film was directed by Taylor Hackford (An Officer and a Gentleman, Ray), and this is what he said about the film in an interview with EW:
“I saw the movie as a dark drama with some comedy, but then we tested it with an audience, and they really laughed hard. So better to call it a dark comedy with drama.”
The film...
This isn't the first time that De Niro has played a comedian. Back in In 1983 he starred in a film called The King of Comedy, in which he played Rupert Pupkin, who desperately wanted to be a stand-up comic.
The film was directed by Taylor Hackford (An Officer and a Gentleman, Ray), and this is what he said about the film in an interview with EW:
“I saw the movie as a dark drama with some comedy, but then we tested it with an audience, and they really laughed hard. So better to call it a dark comedy with drama.”
The film...
- 11/21/2016
- by Joey Paur
- GeekTyrant
"What a shmuck." Sony Pictures Classics has unveiled the first trailer for a film titled The Comedian, from Oscar-winning director Taylor Hackford, starring Robert De Niro as an aging stand-up comic. De Niro plays Jackie Burke, who returns to the stage to perform comedy after a long run on a TV sitcom. But things aren't exactly the same as they were in the old days. The full cast includes Danny DeVito, Patti LuPone, Edie Falco, Leslie Mann, Harvey Keitel, with an appearance by Billy Crystal. The film just premiered at AFI Fest and got slammed by critics, with some very harsh feedback making it sound like this is worth skipping. From the looks of it with this trailer, it might be better to recommend Don't Think Twice instead. Here's the first official trailer for Taylor Hackford's The Comedian, originally from EW.com: An aging comic icon, Jackie, has seen better days.
- 11/21/2016
- by Alex Billington
- firstshowing.net
Robert De Niro’s 2016 began with Dirty Grandpa. He’s closing it out with another movie in which he woos a much younger woman, only this project is slightly higher brow. In the first trailer for The Comedian, which comes via Entertainment Weekly, we’re introduced to his passé stand-up named Jackie Burke. You know he’s out of the loop because he uses offensive terms like “dyke” and seems unaware that gay marriage is legal. But that doesn’t stop Leslie Mann‘s character, who he meets in a soup kitchen, for falling for him despite their age difference. A performance for a bunch of elderly people makes him a success again, but we assume the ultimate question is whether he’ll find happiness or something like that. De Niro’s casting is an obvious nod to The King Of Comedy, though Taylor Hackford’s film doesn’t ...
- 11/21/2016
- by Esther Zuckerman
- avclub.com
In 1983, Robert De Niro starred as Rupert Pupkin, a crazed fan who yearns desperately to be a stand-up comic, in the ironically titled The King of Comedy. Now, 33 years later, the seven-time Oscar nominee (he’s won two statuettes) is in contention for nod No. 8 with his lead role in The Comedian, a darkly humorous film set in the strange world of comedy clubs.
Directed by Taylor Hackford (An Officer and a Gentleman, Ray) and written by a quartet of industry pros including Jeff Ross and Richard Lagravenese, The Comedian features De Niro as a once-edgy Don Rickles-like stand-up named Jackie Burke.
Directed by Taylor Hackford (An Officer and a Gentleman, Ray) and written by a quartet of industry pros including Jeff Ross and Richard Lagravenese, The Comedian features De Niro as a once-edgy Don Rickles-like stand-up named Jackie Burke.
- 11/21/2016
- by peoplecomproducer
- PEOPLE.com
Hollywood – There is a sense of exhaustive familiarity that permeates throughout Taylor Hackford’s new dramedy “The Comedian.” That’s not a very funny way to describe a movie about a veteran comedian still living in the shadow of his greatest sitcom success, but then again the movie, which had its world premiere at AFI Fest 2016, isn’t very funny either.
A longtime passion project of star Robert De Niro and producer and co-screenwriter Art Linson, “The Comedian” centers on Jackie Burke (De Niro), a stand up comedian in his late 60’s (he’s either 67, 70 or somewhere in between) who is struggling to keep his career on an upward trajectory.
Continue reading Robert De Niro’s Jokes Ain’t Funny In ‘The Comedian’ [Review] at The Playlist.
A longtime passion project of star Robert De Niro and producer and co-screenwriter Art Linson, “The Comedian” centers on Jackie Burke (De Niro), a stand up comedian in his late 60’s (he’s either 67, 70 or somewhere in between) who is struggling to keep his career on an upward trajectory.
Continue reading Robert De Niro’s Jokes Ain’t Funny In ‘The Comedian’ [Review] at The Playlist.
- 11/14/2016
- by Gregory Ellwood
- The Playlist
When I consider The Comedian, I’m hard-pressed to articulate just what the movie is. It feels as though over the course of the production, whatever point it was supposed to have got lost, perhaps in the transition from one director or screenplay draft to another. What’s left is an accretion of movie stars and name comedians orbiting a plotless New York travelogue starring Robert De Niro.
De Niro plays Jackie Burke, an aged comedian on hard times, best known for a hacky sitcom he headlined decades ago. After beating up a heckler at a show and spending 30 days in jail, he makes a stab at rebuilding his career, and at the same time romances Harmony (Leslie Mann), a fellow parolee. The various incidences which loosely constitute a story arise from one or both of these threads, as well as an abortive subplot about Jackie reconnecting with his brother...
De Niro plays Jackie Burke, an aged comedian on hard times, best known for a hacky sitcom he headlined decades ago. After beating up a heckler at a show and spending 30 days in jail, he makes a stab at rebuilding his career, and at the same time romances Harmony (Leslie Mann), a fellow parolee. The various incidences which loosely constitute a story arise from one or both of these threads, as well as an abortive subplot about Jackie reconnecting with his brother...
- 11/13/2016
- by Daniel Schindel
- The Film Stage
If you thought “Dirty Grandpa” marked a comedic bottoming out for two-time Academy Award winner Robert De Niro, then you underestimated the catastrophic capabilities of this wretched year. Kicking off 2016 by putting his penis on Zac Efron’s pillow, the cinematic icon who so vehemently desired to punch Donald Trump in the face concludes a painful 12 months as the titular star of “The Comedian,” spouting a slew of sexist, homophobic, and comprehensively dated jokes that America’s president-elect would probably find familiar.
Too conventional to function as shock comedy and too angry to spark spontaneous laughs, “The Comedian” is a film without a purpose. Taylor Hackford’s latest directorial effort never even takes the time to figure out why its central figure turned to stand-up in the first place. Worse yet, De Niro shows little sign of caring what drives our darkest funnymen to say what they say on stage,...
Too conventional to function as shock comedy and too angry to spark spontaneous laughs, “The Comedian” is a film without a purpose. Taylor Hackford’s latest directorial effort never even takes the time to figure out why its central figure turned to stand-up in the first place. Worse yet, De Niro shows little sign of caring what drives our darkest funnymen to say what they say on stage,...
- 11/12/2016
- by Ben Travers
- Indiewire
De Niro’s turn as a misanthropic weather-beaten comic who can’t seem to shake his annoying alter-ego, mixes Bad Grandpa’s puerile pathos and Louie’s darkness
Robert De Niro recently made headlines for saying he could no longer punch Donald Trump in the face now the New York businessman is president-elect. It’s the kind of thing you could imagine his character in The Comedian, the misanthropic burned-out standup Jackie Burke, working into a routine or perhaps taking a step further. In fact, Burke – whose put-upon manager is played by Edie Falco – doesn’t have any such issues with self-constraint, and triggers the film’s first act by assaulting a heckling audience member in a public breakdown that has shades of Michael Richards.
That outburst sets up the well-worn premise of The Comedian: a standup who can’t shake his best known and, often, most mainstream character.
Robert De Niro recently made headlines for saying he could no longer punch Donald Trump in the face now the New York businessman is president-elect. It’s the kind of thing you could imagine his character in The Comedian, the misanthropic burned-out standup Jackie Burke, working into a routine or perhaps taking a step further. In fact, Burke – whose put-upon manager is played by Edie Falco – doesn’t have any such issues with self-constraint, and triggers the film’s first act by assaulting a heckling audience member in a public breakdown that has shades of Michael Richards.
That outburst sets up the well-worn premise of The Comedian: a standup who can’t shake his best known and, often, most mainstream character.
- 11/12/2016
- by Lanre Bakare
- The Guardian - Film News
Robert DeNiro joins the Best Actor race now with the Comedian, which will have its world premier on November 11. EW’s exclusive on the film has this info: In the film,...
- 10/14/2016
- by Sasha Stone
- AwardsDaily.com
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