The Comedian (2017) * * *

Directed by:  Taylor Hackford

Starring:  Robert DeNiro, Leslie Mann, Charles Grodin, Harvey Keitel, Edie Falco, Danny DeVito, Patti Lupone, Billy Crystal

Jackie Burke is a stand-up comic whose act and real-life personality are mostly edges and elbows.    He starred in a hit TV sitcom called "Eddie's Home" a thousand years ago and he is reduced to playing small clubs where audience members want him to recite the show's famous catchphrase.    He may as well change his name to Eddie.   Jackie isn't thrilled with his situation and after punching out a heckler who was video recording his show, he is sentenced to 30 days in jail and community service at a soup kitchen.    Instead of ruining what is left of his career, the footage of his fight goes viral and Jackie becomes an internet sensation.  

Jackie's stand-up act is a high wire act between humor and degradation of his audience.    He offends half of the audience while the other half laughs.    His personal life isn't so great either.    But at the soup kitchen he meets Harmony (Mann), a 40ish woman performing community service for an assault charge as well.     She is miffed to learn Jackie received 100 hours of community service while she was sentenced to 250, but they soon become friends and companions.    They sleep together one night before she relocates to Florida, which provides the sometimes irascible Jackie with more drama than expected.

The Comedian is not Mr. Saturday Night for 21st century audiences.    Jackie is many times divorced and has children that won't speak to him, so we are spared those perfunctory family quarrels and resolutions.    Jackie's only family willing to speak with him is his brother (DeVito) who runs a deli with his wife and is not thrilled with the fact that Jackie only comes around when he needs money.    Jackie's sister-in-law (Lupone) doesn't hide her disdain from him.    Jackie is asked to attend his niece's wedding and, after being pushed into performing, delivers his trademark polarizing stand-up act.

The Comedian is not a love letter to show business, but a study of its fickleness.    One minute you are the hot name and the next you are clearly forgotten because you haven't produced a hit in a while.    Stand-up comedy is forever touting the next Jerry Seinfeld, but fame and career longevity like Seinfeld's are the exception instead of the rule.    The next Jerry Seinfeld winds up, more often than not, being the next Jackie Burke.     DeNiro played fledgling comedian Rupert Pupkin in Martin Scorsese's The King of Comedy (1983).   Pupkin was so desperate to appear on a late night talk show that he kidnaps the show's host and asks to perform as the ransom.     Jackie's career arc is likely what would have happened to Pupkin if we checked in on him 34 years later.

Jackie's act isn't funny as much as it is cringe-inducing.     The movie doesn't make the mistake of trying to convince us that Jackie is a misunderstood comic genius.    Some people find his act funny, while others are openly horrified and others laugh uncomfortably just to avoid being singled out for insults by Jackie.     Jackie's delivery is more like an assault on the audience, but the audience doesn't seem to mind.     It is a testament to DeNiro that he can play Jackie as all edges, but we still care about him and his troubles.   

It is also fun to see DeNiro sharing the screen again with previous co-stars Billy Crystal (playing himself) and Charles Grodin, with whom DeNiro was masterfully paired in Midnight Run (1988).    And don't forget Harvey Keitel, with whom DeNiro co-starred in Mean Streets, Taxi Driver, and the unfortunate Little Fockers.    Their scenes are played with easy familiarity and are amusing, even though the characters they play are antagonizing each other.     Leslie Mann is more dialed down here than in previous flops like The Change-Up, This Is 40, and The Other Woman, where she was expected to carry the day in awkward comic scenes.    She plays a nice foil to Jackie and will only put up with so much from him.  

I liked the darker, biting tone of The Comedian.    It understands show business and stand-up comedy, both of which chews people up and spits up more often than not.    It takes a certain type of person to even try to eke out a living in those professions let alone become a star.    Even in an age where stardom can be attained from a YouTube video, we need someone like Jackie Burke to make us understand that one video (or hit show) does not a career make.