MOVIE · 1982

The King of Comedy

ComedyCrimeDramaThriller109 min

Rupert Pupkin wants to be a stand-up star, and he decides the fastest way in is through the life of the man he worships. Robert De Niro is Rupert, an aspiring comic who turns a chance encounter with a famous late-night host into stalking, forcing himself into a New York show-business orbit that never invited him. Jerry Lewis is the host, a public figure whose offstage life is worn down by the attention Rupert mistakes for intimacy. Under Martin Scorsese, the film fixes on celebrity obsession, media culture, and the gap between performance and delusion.