A terrific and sadly neglected movie directed by Sidney Lumet. It's an expert blend of comedy and drama with a lot of philosophy thrown in as four intellectuals attempt to attend the funeral of a friend. It's not an out and out farce, but it is very funny. Lumet peels back each character at a deliberate pace and there's nothing false about any of them. George Segal has the lead and he's excellent. Jack Warden, Sorrell Booke and Joseph Wiseman make up the other three and though that may sound like strange casting, they're all in top form. Booke gets a lot of laughs as a roly-poly pop culture vulture. There are many great moments. One particular (albiet melancholy) scene has Segal wondering through a cemetery letting the residents know what they've missed (the space race, infant mortality rates, etc). The top notch cast also features Jessica Walters as the embittered widow, Zohra Lampert, Godfrey Cambridge and, as a chatterbox rabbi, Alan King. Boris Kaufman did the cinematography and it's fun seeing 1967 New York.
Review of Bye Bye Braverman
