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Looking For Lenny

LOOKING FOR LENNY (Elan Gale, U.S.). 63 minutes.

Saturday (May 7), 9:15 pm, Toronto Underground Theatre. Rating: NN


I’m hoping there are stronger films about than this entry in TJFF’s Three Lennys Sidebar Series (Bruce, Cohen and Bernstein). Festival opener Looking For Lenny has me still looking for Lenny Bruce.

To explore the influence of the complex comedian, Elan Gale relies on interviews with major American comic talents including vets Robert Klein, Shelley Berman and Phyllis Diller and younger talents like Lewis Black and Jon Lovitz. All of them say the same thing: Bruce pushed the envelope. Nothing new there.

Though there’s some decent footage of Bruce performing – he used music and impressions to huge effect – we get no idea why he chose comedy, what motivated him to go to outrageous heights and what drove him to drugs.

And hearing his name in the same breath as dumbed-down shock jock Don Imus must have Bruce rolling in his grave.

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