Lenny

Very well put together. And a memorable performance from Dustin Hoffman.

On the surface, just another warts-and-all biopic, but its made with such creative flair and acted with such passion that it becomes irresistable. Bruce's legacy speaks for itself of course, and yet the movie still manages to seem invaluable. Surtees' beautiful black and white cinematography and the films showbiz trappings echoes 8½, but whereas that film was about survival, love, life and art, Lenny is a film of decay, misery, death and art. Guess which one I prefer.

Hoffman is very good here, and the black and white photography is beautiful, but like most biopics this falls short of being a really good movie. Some nice directorial touches from Fosse.

First, I would submit this as exhibit E proving that Dustin Hoffman is one of the greatest living actors. Second, I would submit this as exhibit HH proving that a great actor can only elevate a film so much.

Blending stand-up into real life Lenny is a neat idea, it speeds up the pace. Since Fosse is an auteur with a few masterpieces, I was expecting more out of it.

By today's standards it'd be a pretty average biopic. It's funny how formulaic all of these "geniuses" are in the way that they lived their lives. Dustin Hoffman was great, and really salvaged an otherwise boring movie. Oh, and don't get me wrong, I'm not selling Lenny's influence short by any means.

Dustin Hoffman's hair will be doing a warm up set.

Biopics are a tough sell for me, but when one is done with such flair then you can clearly see the merits of showing all the crevices of someone's life. Hoffman and Perrine are both magnetic and Fosse's trust to just let them go is freeing. Add the kinetic editing and you have something that has a real energy.

Although alot of comedy doesn't age well (especially overtly political & glib comedy that's built on pandering to liberals like this), this does a great job of showing me why Bruce is considered so important. It's no accident that 60s conservatives were trying to censor him because what he was saying was so obviously offensive to them & that modern day Woke liberals would just as rabidly censor him now. In keeping w/ Bruce's approach it's also a refreshingly warts-and-all portrait.

Hoffman gives an incredible performance in this explosive biopic about the infamous Lenny Bruce.

A semi-decent film propped up by Hoffman's amazing performance.

Hoffman totally encompasses main man Lenny Bruce, both his on-stage presence and his off-stage battles. It's amazingly inspiring to see this man defend his rights to say "tits", "ass", and "cocksucker" until it took away absolutely everything away from him. If you don't think stand-up comedy is one of the purest forms of art, then you need to see this film.

There's a great little moment that is seemingly apropos of nothing where Hoffman soundlessly and happily runs down a hallway, jumps in the air, clicks his heels, struts and raps on a hotel door. Blink and you miss it. These little transient moments in Lenny are the ones I remember, whereas the meaty bits of the biopic are actually quite forgettable. To be honest, I'm not sure where that leaves the film in the end, so, um, I'll just give it a "65" and leave it at that.

At times moving, at others hilarious and ultimately very tragic, Lenny is, to put it simply, a beautiful film. This is now one of my favorite Dustin Hoffman performances and the black and white visual is simple stunning. This movie is criminally underseen.

Contemporary criticism asserts this is a standard biopic: that's nonsense. The endless temporal shifts, multiple subject perspectives and the flagrant, arguably damaging, use of ellipsis places Lenny firmly outside of genre norms. Moreover, it is an actual character study which is fascinated by the way his self destructive impulses tragically informed his art and led to his early demise. Hoffman is great, but the Bergmanesque docu-drama elements seem contrived and ill fitting.

Excellent biography. Probably Dustin Hoffman's best. He really brings the character alive in front of you like no other.

Dustin is Dustin and Bob Fosse has an incredibly solid resume as a director, but this is still a biopic and is inevitably hurt by a well shot, well acted reenactment of one of Lenny's most famous bits.

Good drama about an outrageous comedian. And of course I'm a sucker for modern movies made in black and white

Dustin Hoffman does his usual good job, but all involved try to make Lenny Bruce just a bit too... noble, for lack of a better word. Bad plan.

rvw

I have trouble with shows of people I don't like. Lenny isn't very likable but Hoffman is so Hoffman saves a film that I don't really care that much about/for.

A well-made biopic with great cinematography and acting. Did a good job of showing the life of a controversial comic.

The story is fairly generic, but Hoffman gives a powerhouse performance that keeps the viewer engaged.

An intriguing movie that has some of the most impressive use of sound editing I've ever seen/heard with Fosse masterfully weaving together stand-up monologues and interviews within the storyline. Hoffman is great as Lenny and Valerie Perrine does a good job as his wife. Well worth a watch.

Another great Hoffman role. I gotta go find some real Lenny Bruce clips now.

This movie is all about Dustin Hoffman's performance as Lenny Bruce. The movie is really slow at times and takes too much time indulging itself in seemingly needless stuff. Also the detoriation of Bruce goes so fast that we barely get any character development whatsoever. I know it's based on real-life, but still I believe it could have been done better. If you're a fan of Hoffmann or Lenny Bruce, it's worth a watch, but it's not really really that great a movie compared to it's contemporaries.

I do not know much about a life of Lenny Bruce, but the acting and all round formula how to make biography movie is here...

Maratona Bob Fosse filme #4. Esse foi o único filme do Bob Fosse que não vi na TV aberta nos anos 90. Por que será, né? É fácil ver o porquê Fosse passava tanto tempo se martirizando na edição de seus filmes, o resultado buscado seria beirar a perfeição, o que ele sempre consegue. O último frame desse filme é igualmente devastador como usual em Fosse. BlurayRip no MakingOff.

Dustin is great as trailbrazing stand up comic Lenny Bruce.

Great film.

Dustin Hoffman is good, isn't he.

Looked at as a film about Bruce's role as a free speech martyr, which he certainly was even if a lot of other factors contributed to his premature death, this is a powerful film with a pair of really compelling central performances. Valerie Perrine was certainly never this good again, and Hoffman is at his most naturalistic. The black and white cinematography from Bruce Surtees is gorgeous, and the whole film has a wonderfully seedy beauty to it.

Fosse's rhythmic directing, Bruce Surtees' rugged but aesthetic cinematography, Hoffman's performance, very good all around. I liked this movie, the character and the messages a little bit better than I ever liked Lenny Bruce's act, somehow.

Bob Fosse's Lenny Bruce biopic feels like the last film of the 60s: the editing and semi-documentary touches all evoke that era, and as a piece of filmmaking, it's arguably more visceral and memorable than Fosse's CABARET. The script is a bit less successful, in that we view Lenny mostly through other people's eyes--an interesting choice that nevertheless distances us from him. But Dustin Hoffman throws himself fully into the role, and Valerie Perrine is fantastic as his self-destructive wife.

I kind of expected his personal and professional to be somehow related, but other than the raincoat scene both parts of the movie look like different movies altogether

Dustin Hoffman is quite good. The movie is just ok.

Hoffman's bravura portrayal of the tortured, self-destructive, brilliantly inventive comic Lenny Bruce is enough of a reason to see this. The film uses material from Bruce's trials which are "performed" by Hoffman as part of his nightclub act.

Seen: 2. Hoffman is great, but this is too cold to love.