In 1980, Robert Kolker published his influential work of film criticism, "A Cinema of Loneliness," a bible for many of us film students who were fascinated by the grittiness and artistry of '70s cinema and by the subsequent changes that happened to the pictures we really grew up with: the blockbusters and comedies of the '80s.

I always remember staring at the front cover of my red paperback edition. It featured Robert De Niro's Travis Bickle, head downcast, his confused, rage-filled, ticking time-bomb character tightly wound with hands stuffed in pockets, his precise, military fit frame braving the dirty, sleazy, mean streets of New York. He was frightening, but oddly appealing. This was alienation. This was isolation. This was "God's lonely man." But for younger viewers, this was a distant memory. Not only in the movies, but also in the real world. Though this may sound like a strange question (and not a query one should summon): Where had all the Travis Bickles gone?

Quick answer? The shopping mall.

And if you get behind Jody Hill's subversive, hilarious, weirdly poignant and almost horrifyingly timely "Observe and Report," you'll see Travis, not only as a power-hungry security guard in the form of a schlubbier Seth Rogen, but also as a regular Joe consumer. He might be traversing the food court or staring at the ice skaters in the center rink or wondering if he can afford a flat-screen TV while making his mortgage payment, but he's there, facing down all of that cheaply made fast food, recycled air and overpriced merchandise. He's killing time and, to become even more of a downer here, he's killing his soul. Yes, he's killing his soul at Cinnabon. It's funny and yet it's not.

Such is the power of "Observe and Report," a movie that tips its hat to movies like "Taxi Driver" and "The King of Comedy," but remains an animal all its own. Hill's study of a delusional, deranged head of mall security could only exist now. And, as funny as it is, it's going to get to people who are feeling faceless, disenfranchised and empty. With all of cinema's syrupy bromances, mean, shock humor comedies, and Judd Apatow life lessons to either catch an easy, gross-out laugh or lift one's spirit, emboldening one to finally grow up, "Observe and Report" reveals how complicated this really is.

But again, I repeat, "Observe and Report" is a comedy. I think.