Popular reviews

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  Review by Sean Baker 7

  B&W cinematography and production design is A+. Could watch this film all day for faces, atmosphere and craft in general. Cinematographer Bruce Surtees is one of the greats. And the editing by Alan Heim has the rhythm of a Lenny Bruce stand-up show.

  Valerie Perrine is truly fantastic in this. No wonder she won Best Actress at Cannes that year.

  Twilight Time Blu-ray has audio commentary by film historians Julie Kirgo and Nick Redman.

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  Review by Ayo Edebiri ★★½ 1

  white people love saying the n word, my god

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  Review by eely ★★★★½

  my wife can be a STRIPPER my wife can be a DRUG ADDICT my wife can be BISEXUAL but I draw the line at my wife NOT COMMITTING TO THE BIT

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  Review by Richard Chandler ★★★★½ 6

  "I didn't do it, man; I just said it."

  The third of five features comprising Bob Fosse's formidable filmography is Lenny, a mixed-format biopic starring Dustin Hoffman as pioneering stand-up comic/free speech activist Lenny Bruce. The sharply acidic script emerged in highly circuitous fashion. Columbia first commissioned Julian Barry to write the screenplay back in 1969, but the massive success of Paramount's Love Story in 1970 necessitated a move toward more romantic fare, at which point Barry connected with theater director Tom O'Horgan—hot off the megahit Hair—to adapt Lenny to the stage. O'Horgan cast Cliff Gorman as the titular loose cannon and managed a hit on Broadway (Fosse-heads will of course recognize Gorman as the obvious Bruce surrogate from The…

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  Review by Jordan Horowitz ★★★★

  I really can’t get over how good Fosse’s editorial is. And also Hoffman. Good god.

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  Review by Jaime Rebanal 🇵🇸 ★★★★★ 2

  I think it was only most fitting that Bob Fosse of all people was the man who went behind making a film about Lenny Bruce. But how exactly would a biopic be able to capture a sense of what the man was truly all about? Maybe it was the fact that Bob Fosse was already working himself up to the point he's captured a sense of what the man was like on the inside, for he was editing this at the same time he was choreographing Chicago, something he went ahead and fictionalized eventually in All That Jazz, his own invitation to a glimpse at the creative process of an artist. And that's only a fraction of what made me…

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  Review by theriverjordan ★★★★½ 2

  Lenny Bruce’s Ranked:

  1. ‘All That Jazz’ Lenny (Mortality Lenny)
  2. ‘Marvelous Mrs. Maisel‘ Lenny (Hot Lenny) 
  3. ‘Lenny’ Lenny (Huggable Lenny) 

  
  The most fully realized character in ‘Lenny’ is actually Honey Harlow -  a remnant of Bob Fosse having a preternatural understanding of dancers/prostitutes/strippers through his own childhood spent tap dancing in nightclubs. This unique upbringing made Fosse’s perpetual strength the creation of sexual, confident women characters that highlighted the fallibilities of the men (re: Fosse himself) around them as simultaneously physical whores and spiritual Madonnas. It’s fascinating to go back through Fosse’s filmography to see how his most brutally honest personal moments are illuminated through his female characters, rather than via the men that outwardly share his own biographic experiences.

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  Review by DallasFrance ★★★★½ 5

  Dustin Hoffman is of course supremely talented, but he goes huuuuuuu(uuuuu)ge in Lenny. To my eyes, the two stars of this film are Valerie Perrine and cinematographer Bruce Surtees. 

  In her role as Honey Bruce, Perrine essentially has a dual role: under the guise of an interview, she functions as the primary narrator of the film. The narration cuts to the scenes she describes, where we see everything from Lenny and Honey Bruce falling in love to their inevitable downfall. (Lenny has excellent editing, too)

  For the most part, it’s understandable that Hoffman has to give a big performance to portray Lenny Bruce. Honey, on the other hand, is talking about a man she still loves, and she describes everything…

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  Review by Adam Kempenaar ★★★★ 6

  My 'hey it's kind of weird I've never seen this' marathon that started with DIRTY HARRY inadvertently became a 'Bruce Surtees shot this and it looks really good' marathon.

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  Review by Sam ★★★½ 2

  WAIT... this ISN’T a musical?!

  Weirdly reminding me of Robert Altman’s masterpiece Nashville, Lenny explores the effects of fame but instead of viewing it from a lens of 24 characters and through an entire town in a definitive era, it explores it through two distinct characters who are in a relationship. Lenny himself (Dusty Hoffman) and his love interest Honey (Valerie Perrine). On stage, Lenny is clearly a comedian. A funny, likable, charming and smart guy. While he is on that stage, director Bob Fosse made it evident that the spotlight was all on him and that he felt this sense of passion and popularity. There are many, many shots of Lenny preforming his comedic act while a bright light…

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  Review by Amanda Patra ★★★★½

  THIS is how you make a biopic.

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  Review by anna nomaly ★★★½ 5

  Somewhat of a dry run for All That Jazz’s portrait of a self-destructive artist, Lenny finds Fosse discarding most of his directorial trademarks to mount a biopic that’s surprisingly adherent to the formula and structure modern audiences are accustomed to, undoubtedly a step along the way toward Hollywood setting that standard for itself. Citizen Kane is immediately invoked by the film’s opening shots and documentary-style interview vignettes, yet there’s less experimentation in play than that influence might indicate. It’s all good material, very well-acted even aside from Hoffman’s tremendous work, but the gritty melodrama of Bruce’s personal life never quite reaches the searing and provocative heights that its study of the comedian’s legacy does. Although the two would make for a strong double bill, The People vs. Larry Flynt tackles a similar philosophical dilemma with greater focus and verve.