Lenny
Director: Bob Fosse
Year Released: 1974
Rating: 2.0
Biopic of late comedian Lenny Bruce that's missing some necessary steps: like why, for example, did Fosse completely avoid detailing Bruce's transition from clean, not-well-received comedian to social satirist (it couldn't have happened overnight)? Dustin Hoffman is a fine Bruce, but the jumbled quasi-documentary approach doesn't do the picture justice, and the frequent cuts (from the dramatization of the man's life to mock "interviews" with the people involved) are too distracting. The last act is oppressive, confrontational and overly dramatic; his descent into some form of obsessed insanity knocks you unconscious.
