Chirphymium It's entirely possible that sending the audience out feeling lousy was intentional

Bluebell Alcock Ok... Let's be honest. It cannot be the best movie but is quite enjoyable. The movie has the potential to develop a great plot for future movies

Ginger Very good movie overall, highly recommended. Most of the negative reviews don't have any merit and are all pollitically based. Give this movie a chance at least, and it might give you a different perspective.

Jenni Devyn Worth seeing just to witness how winsome it is.

valleycapfan "Lenny" is a movie better appreciated than enjoyed, much in the same class as "The Unforgiven," "Taxi Driver," and "Bad Lieutenant." Dustin Hoffman, as one might expect, literally crawls into Lenny Bruce's skin in portraying the groundbreaking but fatally flawed comedian/social critic's short, tumultuous life. What is an unexpected surprise is Valerie Perrine's stunning performance as Bruce's unstable wife, Honey Harlow. Those who are more familiar with Perrine's performances as glorified eye candy will be blindsided by her acting chops as demonstrated here.The use of black-and-white film captures the bleak mood of the film, which strains under the pressure of persuading viewers to follow two unlikable characters for two hours. While Bruce may have been brave and visionary in breaking down taboos at the time, this film correctly avoids making him a completely sympathetic figure.Despite the great acting performances, the film's quasi-documentary approach leads to a disjointed narrative that is more distracting than effective. "Interviews" with the actual relatives and colleagues of Bruce rather than actors portraying them - still possible when the film was made in 1974 - would have been more convincing in laying out Bruce's intentions and persona.Bottom line is that this film is worth watching, though one will leave depressed. Bob Fosse's approach to portraying Bruce's career will be appreciated by some more than others, but if he was attempting to make the audience bemoan Bruce's John Belushi-style exit from life, he failed with this viewer.

jeremy3 It isn't from the painful relationship between his girlfriend, or his addictions. It is from how I remembered this film when Andrew Dice Clay was being attacked for his portrayal in Ford Fairlane (which was an excellent comedy). I was young when this movie was made, and it takes place before I was born. So, I don't know if this movie was accurate. However, this is the irony. Bruce was supposed to be Anti-Establishment. He was lambasting a society that wanted to close its doors on taboos - such as sex, race relations, etc. We had won that war by the 1980s. Then, along came "political correctness". The Anti-Establishment became even worse than the Establishment of old. At least, younger people were already revolting against it by the 1960s. However, the same younger generation that won the 60s suddenly turned "clean". Bruce, may have not have had a wonderful personal life, but at least he was speaking his mind and heart, and not being shut out by the "political correctness" of the time. This is why this movie makes me so sad. It makes me think of the days, when there were painful realities, but people were more human, less perfectionistic, and could speak their minds. And by the late 80s, that World died with the birth of "political correctness". No longer could there be Lenny Bruce's - speaking their hearts and minds. In the old day, the "blue meanies" were the Hooverites. Now, they are the Neo Yuppies who have taken away whatever voice and freedom we used to have in this country. This movie was not great, but it was interesting. Hoffman can carry most roles, and he did a pretty good impersonation. He was a lovable and dislikeable person. He did bad things, but he had a heart, too. He was a person who was imperfect, but trying in many ways to speak his mind. It is too bad that nowadays these days are long gone. We no longer can tell the truth and be enraged. Someone now tells us that we are "unpolitically correct" for trying to speak the truth. That is why this movie is so sad.

Robert J. Maxwell It's a difficult movie to evaluate because it's so desperately sad in so many ways without being tragic.Basically it's the story of a night club comic who became famous and talked himself to death. Bruce took advantage of the Beatnik subculture of the late 1950s who had pushed against obscenity and tender sensibilities enough to leave the door ajar, and then he crashed in recklessly, too self involved to realize that there are times when it's a lot better for you and everyone you care about if you just shut the hell up, that preaching, like drugs, can turn into self indulgence.It's sad to see an essentially good-natured and well-intentioned man commit slow suicide. It's sad to watch someone throw away success with such little grace. And it's sad to know in retrospect that the director, Bob Fosse, identified so intensely with Bruce that the release of the movie was delayed for a long time while Fosse agonized over the editing.All that aside, the film has another problem. It all seems mighty dated, as if we were viewing these Big Social Issues through the wrong end of a telescope. I guess that's not the movie's fault. It was no small matter at the time. It's just that the movies and the internet are now awash in pornography and, far worse, in gory images of heads exploding and limbs being sawed off. Hearing the F bomb spoken in front of an audience of eager adults is nothing compared to having to sit through an example of torture porn like "Unthinkable." None of the difficulty can be attributed to the principal actors either. Dustin Hoffman is fine as he slowly morphs from the ambitious kid trying to please an audience in the Borscht Belt into a self-absorbed egomaniac with glittering eyes. And Valerie Perrine is believable as his despairing junkie wife. Fosse has wisely cast Jan Miner as the optimistic and permissive Jewish mother, instead of a stereotype. She chides him about his heroin use but claps him on the back after a successful and obscene show.Fosse's direction is sure enough. He knows what he wants to do and he does it with deliberation. There are, thank God, no dizzying, whirling camera movements, no instantaneous cuts, no sharp negative images, and no itchy electronic noise on the sound track, but mostly Miles Davis, early and late. Is there any way to resuscitate directors with that kind of style? Any way to shove the pendulum back to its former position? The structure of the film didn't exactly come from "Citizen Kane" but must have been influenced by it. Fosse was to use it again in "Star 80." There are a couple of heartbreaking moments in the film in which we watch Bruce humiliate himself by being drunk on stage and by being obstreperous in court. At any rate, they made me wince. He's so wrapped up in himself and the indignities visited on him that he can no longer take the role of the other. He doesn't know that an audience is there to be entertained, not to listen to him read aloud long sections from the trial transcript. He doesn't realize that when a sympathetic judge finally says, "Not another word," what the judge means is "not another word." Bruce's death may not have come at the worst time. He was pretty far gone, broke and inadequate to any further work. I watched an interview with him during his last year or two and he was falling all over himself and slurring his words -- worse than Truman Capote at his worst. And, having helped break the obscene sound barrier, what was there left for Bruce to do next? Invent a video game full of exploding heads?

Petri Pelkonen This is a movie of a stand-up comedian, Lenny Bruce.Lenny was a Jewish comic, who found love from a "Shiksa goddess", a stripper named Honey.Lenny's act consisted of some questionable material, something not approved by conservative citizens.He found himself often in the courtroom.And then he found drugs with Honey.Along came marital problems and an early death.Lenny (1974) is a Bob Fosse film.The screenplay is by Julian Barry, and it's based on his play by the same name.Dustin Hoffman portrays brilliantly the main character.He probably does a better job than Lenny ever did.Valerie Perrine is amazing as Honey Bruce.Jan Miner is very good as the mother Sally Marr.Stanley Beck is great as Artie Silver.Gary Morton does terrific job as Sherman Hart.I saw Lenny a week ago in a movie theater, for free.I liked the experience.This movie is pretty dramatic, being a movie of a comedian.One of the most memorable moments is when Lenny does an act on dope, wearing a raincoat.That scene shows in a brilliant way the fall of a comedian.And it actually happened.Before seeing this movie I knew very little of this guy.So it's a great introduction to the phenomenon called Lenny Bruce.