namashi_1
Lenny Bruce's troubled life came to celluloid with the Late/Great Bob Fosse's 'Lenny', one of the most well-reviewed films of its time. And like any-other Bob Fosse film, 'Lenny' is imperfect & uninhibited, with two leading-performances that will sweep you off your feat.'Lenny' Synopsis: The story of acerbic 1960s comic Lenny Bruce, whose groundbreaking, no-holds-barred style and social commentary was often deemed by the Establishment as too obscene for the public.Lenny Bruce's sense of humor was no-holds-barred & hence he was a controversial figure of his time. 'Lenny' captures his undeniable talent for humor that raised laughs & questions. This biopic also captures his rather sad personal life & his relationship with his stripper wife & her troubled journey with drugs. And some of this is actually affecting & also inspired stuff.BUT, The Screenplay by Julian Barry isn't entirely engaging. The Writing is brave in parts and unappealing in parts. As acidic as Lenny's stand-up shows turn out, the Writing can never match up to its outspoken, thought-provoking hero.Fosse's Direction, like always, is driven by human-emotions. And the filmmaker captures Lenny's life with complete honesty. Cinematography & Editing are finely done.Performance-Wise: Dustin Hoffman & Valerie Perrine are brilliant. Hoffman portrays Lenny as a man with a sharp tongue & a flawed soul, giving us a questionable hero, made pure out of heart & flesh. Perrine soars as his troubled wife Honey. Honey died nearly 40 years after Lenny's demise & Perrine immerses herself into the part. Its a knock-out performance, that proves her powerhouse talent. Its no surprise that both, Hoffman & Perrine, earned Oscar-Nominations for their work here!On the whole, 'Lenny' is far from perfection, but the acting here, is beyond perfection.
mpbuchwald
There were a load of great standup comedians active at the time anyone of whom would have made a better choice, such as Frank Gorshin who was a great impressionist and wickedly funny too. Hoffman gave a dry as dust performance, which completely let down his legion of countercultural fans. What's more he was too short for the part. At the time, the movie industry had abandoned its tried and true approach, moved its headquarters East from Hollywood, and was producing a series of pretentious and often tasteless pictures, influenced by the European art-house film industry. In a misguided attempt to score with college educated moviegoers, the New York school ignored the proved popular taste of the audience in favor of a phoney attempt to culturally legitimize American movies by making them less commercial and more like their (usually less popular and less well-made) European counterparts.
Gabriel Teixeira
'Lenny' tells the story of comedian Lenny Bruce, who dared to defy the conventions and use taboo subjects (homosexuality, STDs, drug abuse, etc) in his stand-up routines. Truthfully, I don't know anything about the man; as such, I have no idea of how true the film is to the real Lenny. However, the cinematography is quite good, and Dustin Hoffman is excellent as usual (too bad Lenny Bruce had already died, anyone would be honored to have such a high-level actor portraying them). Valerie Perrine is quite beautiful as his wife.The way Bob Fosse decided to shoot this, though, is what truly caught my attention. He makes the film similar to a documentary, interwoven with flashbacks/flashforwards/flashwhatever of Lenny's life and his stand-up acts (performed finely by Hoffman). The editing is quite masterfully done, with the scenes interweaving perfectly.However, with the comedy the way it is nowadays, 'Lenny' is very dated. In a time where Sacha Baron Cohen, 'Scary Movie' and many other crude comedies are abound, any kind of impact this film's comedic side might have is almost null; no one else will even blink in shock at his subjects at all, though they may still do so at the dramatic side of the film (Lenny Bruce's wasted life).The film stands as a very well directed and acted picture, but with time has lost most of its power. It is a sad story, and the dramatic side still works well enough, but in the end it feels like just another celebrity who lost himself.
Petri Pelkonen
This is a movie of a stand-up comedian, Lenny Bruce.Lenny was a Jewish comic, who found love from a "Shiksa goddess", a stripper named Honey.Lenny's act consisted of some questionable material, something not approved by conservative citizens.He found himself often in the courtroom.And then he found drugs with Honey.Along came marital problems and an early death.Lenny (1974) is a Bob Fosse film.The screenplay is by Julian Barry, and it's based on his play by the same name.Dustin Hoffman portrays brilliantly the main character.He probably does a better job than Lenny ever did.Valerie Perrine is amazing as Honey Bruce.Jan Miner is very good as the mother Sally Marr.Stanley Beck is great as Artie Silver.Gary Morton does terrific job as Sherman Hart.I saw Lenny a week ago in a movie theater, for free.I liked the experience.This movie is pretty dramatic, being a movie of a comedian.One of the most memorable moments is when Lenny does an act on dope, wearing a raincoat.That scene shows in a brilliant way the fall of a comedian.And it actually happened.Before seeing this movie I knew very little of this guy.So it's a great introduction to the phenomenon called Lenny Bruce.
AD
