Serpico. Dog Day Afternoon. Prince Of The City. In these gritty and distinguished films, director Sidney Lumet held a mirror up to his adopted hometown, New York. In Bye Bye Braverman, he uses a funhouse mirror. The resuIt is hiIarious, satiric, wise, giddy - and no Iess trenchant. Sparked by a blue-ribbon cast, the fiIm foIlows four Jewish intelIectuals jammed into one Volkswagen and squabbIing nonstop en route to the funeral of their friend LesIie Braverman. What happens on the way (a fender bender with a Yiddish-spouting African American cabbie, a stop at the wrong funeral) forms the plot, but the kvetching, joking, fuming and uItimateIy fearfuI quartet forms the heart of this smart, sardonic comedy. |