Bob hoffman isometrics review movie#

Julian BarryвЂ™s Lenny screenplay uses the age-old narrative framework about the celebrity who goes from rags to riches to fall from glory ( IвЂ™ll Cry Tomorrow, Jeanne Eagels, The Buster Keaton Story, etc.), with the added touch of a Citizen Kane-like post-mortem investigation by way of interviews with Lenny BruceвЂ™s former wife, Honey Harlow (played by Valerie Perrine), his mother (Jan Miner, instead of the originally announced Shelley Winters), and his agent (Stanley Beck). Lenny Bruce (1925вЂ“1966), the stand-up comedian who became one of the top representatives of the American antiestablishment movement of the 1950s and 1960s. In fact, considering the talent involved and the fertile material at hand, Lenny turns out to be a major artistic letdown.ДЄfter all, much more should have come out of a joint effort between director Fosse, fresh off his Oscar win for Cabaret (plus a Tony for Pippin and an Emmy for Liza with a вЂZвЂ™) playwright-screenwriter Julian Barry, whose 1971 stage version of Lenny (from an earlier screenplay draft ) earned star Cliff Gorman a Tony and a Drama Desk Award and (then) two-time Best Actor Oscar nominee Dustin Hoffman ( The Graduate, 1967 Midnight Cowboy, 1969).

The film itself, however, is only sporadically provocative or absorbing.

Bob hoffman isometrics review movie#

Shot in gritty, cinГ©ma vГ©ritГ©-style black and white by Dirty Harry and Play Misty for Me cinematographer Bruce Surtees, Bob FosseвЂ™s 1974 Lenny movie biopic has two major assets: The ever-relevant free speech issues it raises and the riveting presence of Cannes Film Festival winner and Academy Award/BAFTA Best Actress nominee Valerie Perrine (in what amounts to a supporting role).