Looking for Lenny (2011)

Director:

Elan Gale

Writer:

Elan Gale (story)

Genre:

Documentary

Plot:

Looking for Lenny is an in-depth, controversial documentary that uses Lenny Bruce's legacy to explore...

Plot Keywords:

Satire | Freedom Of Speech | 1960s

Cast

Lenny Bruce	...	Himself (archive footage)
Richard Lewis	...	Himself
Robin Williams	...	Himself
Roseanne Barr	...	Herself
Christopher Titus	...	Himself
Kitty Bruce	...	Herself
Mark Lonow	...	Himself
Phyllis Diller	...	Herself
Ronnie Schell	...	Himself
Elon Gold	...	Himself
Mort Sahl	...	Himself
Shelley Berman	...	Himself
Enrico Banducci	...	Himself
Jonathan Winters	...	Himself
Rob Riggle	...	Himself
Hugh M. Hefner	...	Himself (as Hugh Hefner)
Lewis Black	...	Himself
Satsimran Kaur	...	Herself
John Magnuson	...	Himself
Troy Duffy	...	Himself
Orlando Jones	...	Himself
Fish	...	Himself
Robert Klein	...	Himself
Jon Lovitz	...	Himself (as John Lovitz)
Jamie Masada	...	Himself
Joe Mantegna	...	Himself
Chris Spencer	...	Himself
Paul Mooney	...	Himself
Jay Davis	...	Himself
Lisa Lampanelli	...	Herself
Ahmed Ahmed	...	Himself
Mathew Harawitz	...	Himself
Bobby Slayton	...	Himself
Jeff Cesario	...	Himself
Martin Garbus	...	Himself
Brian Holtzman	...	Himself
Carl B. Montgomery	...	Himself (as Carl Montgomery)
Jim Norton	...	Himself
Henry Rollins	...	Himself
George Pataki	...	Himself
Paul Mercurio	...	Himself
Ron Jeremy	...	Himself
Andy Kindler	...	Himself
Frank Ray Perilli	...	Himself (as Frankie Ray Perilli)
Gordon McGill	...	Himself
Clifton Collins Jr.	...	Himself
Steve Krief
Sandra Bernhard	...	Herself
Jeffrey Ross	...	Himself
Paul Krassner	...	Himself
Matt Amar
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
John Bowman	...	Himself (uncredited)
Steven Fishco	...	Himself (uncredited)
Adam Hunter	...	Himself (uncredited)
Maz Jobrani	...	Himself (uncredited)
Ronnie Marmo	...	Himself (uncredited)
Patrick O'Sullivan	...	Himself (uncredited)
Rick Overton	...	Himself (uncredited)

Directed by
Elan Gale

Writing credits (in alphabetical order)
Elan Gale		story

Produced by
Matt Amar	....	producer
William Bergschneider	....	executive producer
Elan Gale	....	producer
Patrick O'Sullivan	....	producer
Carla Polkinhorn	....	executive producer
Carla Polkinhorn	....	producer
Jason Sutter	....	associate producer

Cinematography by
Bradley D. Reed

Film Editing by
Andrew Kimery

Sound Department
Czharcus M. Jones	....	sound editor

Camera and Electrical Department
Nani Sahra Walker	....	camera operator (as Nani Walker)

Editorial Department
Andrew Kimery	....	colorist

Production Companies

• Borderline Films (III)
• Borderline Media & Entertainment

Distributors

• ContentFilm International (2011) (Non-USA) (all media)
• Gravitas Ventures (2012) (USA) (video) (VOD)
• Yleisradio (YLE) (2013) (Finland) (TV)

Also Known As:

Runtime:

USA:65 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Certification:

USA:Not Rated

Filming Locations:

Las Vegas, Nevada, USA

Company:

Borderline Films (III)

Still looking.

I admit to knowing very little about Lenny Bruce's life and work, indeed I haven't even seen the Dustin Hoffman bio-pic from the 70's but being aware to some extent of his status as a comedian and his courting of controversy especially in the 60's, I was intrigued to watch this hour-long documentary.

I wasn't quite expecting the tangential diversions into the discussions on free-speech as the programme took in a couple of recent examples of censorship, which in fact i would argue are little known outside the States, presumably seeing in them a link to Bruce's pioneering comedy although I'm not sure he'd be completely comfortable with the godfather of shock-jock title conferred on him here. I also think the film uses too many interviewees, reducing their contributions to sound-bite status and while some do make pertinent points, too many just repeat the same old "Lenny died for our (future) sins", plus I just plain hadn't heard of many of them and so struggled to put their remarks in context.

I would have been happier to have learned more about Bruce's personal life and evolution as a human being, as well as a public-facing comedian and while it was bold to try and impart this dichotomy into the narrative, I felt this was two programmes in one, with Bruce's example being used more to back up the director's own agenda on free speech in latter-day America.

Perhaps there want enough archive footage of Bruce to carry a full documentary focused on him, but surely more could have been done to integrate his recordings and reminiscences of his immediate family (particularly his articulate daughter), friends and contemporaries rather than some of the fairly blatant hero-worship we get here.

This show did leave me wanting to find out more about this darkly complex man but the fact that it didn't satisfy my curiosity within its own confines was surely a missed opportunity.