De Palma calls his film "a contemporary statement of what was going on in my life and the lives around me at that period..." A young Robert De Niro is unforgettable as a returning Vietnam veteran trying to reintegrate into the changing culture and in the process becoming a voyeur in his own neighborhood. Hi Mom! has the downtown energy, the craziness and carelessness of Robert Downey's films. It also has a wonderful spoof of the art scene ("peep art" makes its debut) and takes "guerrilla theater" to its too-literal end. Memorable moments include De Niro trying out for a black theater troupe in the role of a cop, reciting, to a mop, his most famous lines from Taxi Driver, made six years later.