Good luck shaking this one off

Rating: 8/10 (1 May 2015)

"Taxi Driver", besides introducing the unforgettable anti-hero Travis Bickle, deserves heaps of credit for its prolonged potency. This is a movie that gets under your skin, hits a nerve. Scorsese gives us a front-row seat to bear witness to Bickle's descent into marginalized madness. It's an uncomfortable trip, certainly, due in no small part to De Niro's jacked-up intensity. His isolation grows from awkwardly heartbreaking to deeply unnerving to straight-out mystifying when underage Jodie Foster becomes involved. Not to mention the assassination attempt. This is some fascinating stuff, and I really liked how the jazzy score played against the lurid subject matter. Urban decay has never been so engaging.
8/10