Bye Bye Braverman

One of Lumet's New York movies, based on Wallace Markfield's acidly funny novel To an Early Grave, about four literary mediocrities driving around in search of a friend's funeral (the eponymous Braverman, a lionised success), meanwhile giving vent to their spleen in conversations haunted by middle-age, failure and death. Unreleased in Britain, perhaps because of its 'doubtful' taste (at one point the four find themselves hilariously stalled at the wrong funeral), it's a little unfocused but bristles with Jewish wit and fine performances.