De Palma offers a self-conscious time capsule of downtown sights and moods, especially in his rambunctious, hilarious, yet nonetheless disturbing parodies of public television.

The most Hitchcockian riff that De Palma ever examined is the capacity for the human psyche to harbor intense, complicated divergence.

Hi, Mom! somehow takes the war on the establishment seriously while painting its combatants in buffoonish broadstrokes.

Hi, Mom! anticipates De Palma’s eventual tributes to Hitchcock, and the film also anticipates one of De Niro’s signature roles.