Home Movies (1979) review

"The Maestro" (Kirk Douglas), a film professor at Now College, runs a class on how to properly exude "star power" and uses student Denis Byrd (Keith Gordon) as an example of a young person not showing enough confidence in his own life: Denis' father Dr. Byrd (Vincent Gardenia) keeps cheating on his wife (Mary Davenport) and Denis' brother James (Gerrit Graham) is engaged to Kristina (Nancy Allen), but tries to control every moment of her existence (which is making her miserable).  At this point in his career, De Palma had already directed a few larger budgeted features (including Carrie and The Fury) so it seems like a rather regressive move going back to creating an amateur movie (with the help of his students from Sarah Lawrence College) with autobiographical elements, as it's scatterbrained and the bits that do work are short-lived.  It becomes increasingly nuttier, too, with some questionable artistic decisions, falling apart totally when Denis puts on blackface (to spy on both his Pop and Kristina) and then Kristina cracks up and starts having conversations with a rabbit puppet ... although it does conclude with a smidge of hope.