Night and the City (1992 film) De Niro's work as "more like a riff on Rupert Pupkin, the goofy talk show fan he played in Scorsese's "The King of Comedy"". Ebert and Howe both agreed, however, that Alan King's performance was fantastic. Owen Gleiberman concurred in his review, but he sided with Ebert regarding De Niro, concluding, "the actor who once seemed the heir to Brando, Clift, and, yes, Widmark — the actor who once got so far inside his roles that he just about detonated the screen — now plays characters who don't seem to have any inner life at all." David Ansen praised the
Robert De Niro Scorsese earned him the Academy Award for Best Actor for his portrayal of Jake LaMotta in the 1980 film "Raging Bull". De Niro's first major film roles were in the sports drama "Bang the Drum Slowly" (1973) and Scorsese's crime film "Mean Streets" (1973). He earned Academy Award nominations for the psychological thrillers "Taxi Driver" (1976) and "Cape Fear" (1991), both directed by Scorsese. De Niro received additional nominations for Michael Cimino's Vietnam war drama "The Deer Hunter" (1978), Penny Marshall's drama "Awakenings" (1990), and David O. Russell's romantic comedy-drama "Silver Linings Playbook" (2012). His portrayal of gangster Jimmy Conway