Review of Lenny (1974) by Hugo S — 14 May 2008

LENNY (1974).

Directed by Bob Fosse.

Starring Dustin Hoffman, Valerie Perrine, Jan Miner«"Fuck you." Never understood that insult, because fucking someone is actually really pleasant. If we're trying to be mean, we should say "unfuck you!"»In the 1960's, Lenny Bruce was a controversial comedian with abrasive and offensive humor but he was very honest and set himself to face America with its own hypocrisy. From the moment he met an exotic dancer who would become his wife, to his struggling career, his life of drug abuse, the birth of his kid, his rise to fame and his many arrests, Lenny follows the the career of the legendary comedian who fought against censorship.Bob Fosse's film sure follows the classic narrative of a biographical film, it opens with a scene that happens later in the life of the man and then it goes back in time. But Fosse uses different tricks from there on, adding interviews of people who knew Lenny Bruce and scenes from his later act, commenting in some way, on his past.Shot in gorgeous black and white, Lenny is a very interesting film about a man who was ahead of his time. Unfortunately he was consumed by his love for his wife and the non-sense of his arrest fo obscenity, partiularly for using the word «cocksucking» in one of his acts. He became obssessed with it, but his fight wasnt vein, as he opened the doors to cut such absurd censorship. Less than a decade later, all the words he was trialed for, became casual, such a shame.Lenny wasnt just a funny guy, he was pretty smart as well, his ways to make people think was pretty clever, and it worked fine. Dustin Hoffman is absolutely amazing in the title role. His voice is barely recognizeable and his performance is easily one of the best of that decade.Lenny with its documentary-like style is kind of slow, but totally worth it, espicially in the second half, when we can finally undestand why the man became such an icon. Very good film.