Lenny Review
His first non-musical film, Bob_Fosse's biopic Lenny (1974) confirmed the breadth of the former hoofer's -- and his star Dustin_Hoffman's -- protean talents. Detailing socially conscious pottymouth comic Lenny_Bruce's trailblazing rise and self-immolating fall in a series of flashbacks, Fosse and screenwriter Julian_Barry inject grim drama into an unsentimental portrait of the artist as a highly flawed man. Along with re-staging pieces of the straight-talking routines that made Bruce famous, Fosse and Hoffman relentlessly reveal his demise as a performer in an unwavering long take of Bruce's drug-addled on-stage meltdown after his obscenity trials. Bruce_Surtees' rich black-and-white photography lends a note of documentary authenticity as well as an appropriately somber nocturnal atmosphere. Oscar nominee and critics' prize-winner Valerie_Perrine hit her career peak as Bruce's stripper-turned-junkie wife, Honey. Hoffman's embodiment of the comic illuminates Bruce's own destructive role in his free speech martyrdom. Praised by the critics and well appreciated by a culturally savvy 1974 audience that didn't mind cinematic downers, Lenny went on to receive six Oscar nominations, including Best Picture, Fosse's second nod for Best Director, and Best Actor. Lucia Bozzola, Rovi
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