Serpico. Dog Day Afternoon. Prince Of The City. ln these gritty and distinguished fiIms, director Sidney Lumet held a mirror up to his adopted hometown, New York. ln Bye Bye Braverman, he uses a funhouse mirror. The resuIt is hiIarious, satiric, wise, giddy - and no less trenchant. Sparked by a blue-ribbon cast, the fiIm foIIows four Jewish intelIectuals jammed into one VoIkswagen and squabbIing nonstop en route to the funeraI 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 funeraI) forms the pIot, but the kvetching, joking, fuming and ultimateIy fearfuI quartet forms the heart of this smart, sardonic comedy. |