All That Jazz - Music Edition (1979)

Awesome, in every sense of the word.

All That Jazz (Bob Fosse, 1979)

Even at the tender age of ten, I was already both a ravening cinephile and a hardcore music fan. Cabaret was one of my favorite movies as a youngster (and doesn't it strike you, too, as odd that I would be exposed to such a movie repeatedly at such a tender age?), so it seemed to me, at the time, that All That Jazz, Fosse's other huge musical blockbuster, was a natural. My parents, however, were not so sure; stills from the movie combined with it being rated R for "graphic depictions of surgery" convinced my mother that there was some form of weird, and nude, interpretive dance going on with surgery as its theme. Well, mom, I'm here to tell you, finally, that a chest spreader is not an interpretive dance-- that really is a graphic depiction of surgery. (However, it's worth noting that nowadays, you see this sort of thing on shows like ER all the time, so don't let that stop you.) But, yeah, like the man said, "will there be [censored for Amazon consumption]?". Yup. Of course, as a ten-year-old, that's the other half of why I wanted to see this movie. It's twenty-nine years later, and I finally have.

The story: this is basically Bob Fosse's autobiography, through his alter ego Joe Gideon (Roy Schieder), a workaholic philanderer. We see him in the throes of putting together a stage show while at the same time overediting an epic film about a standup comedian (in real life, this is his 1974 flick Lenny), having flings with a bunch of starlets, trying hard, but in vain, to connect with his daughter (Erszebet Foldi, who never acted in another film), and indulging in the vast overuse of, well, just about everything he can get his hands on. I have to say that all of this leads to a pretty predictable outcome, but I also have to say that man, I did not see that ending coming. Maybe I should have, but wow.

It's a truism that, seeing a film thirty years after its release, you're going to be looking for different stuff than you would have thirty years before, and such is the case here. One of the great parts of this movie, for me, was seeing actors who have grown into brand names early in their careers (most notably John Lithgow and CCH Pounder), but the spectacle of this thing is just as amazing now as I'm sure it was then; I say this, mind you, as someone who generally can't stand musicals, despite my love of both film and music. Fosse obviously did this one from the heart, and it shows in every frame. Everything about this flick is top-notch; even if you don't like musicals, I highly recommend it. **** ½
May 30, 2008

All That Jazz Rocks!

Seldom seen on TV, this is a rather dark view of behind-the-scenes Broadway. It's an autobiographical movie of the choreographer/director Bob Fosse, a man who had great career success but was less successful in his personal life. And, don't forget the fabulous musical numbers and Bob's patented, sexy, sensational dance numbers.
A "don't miss" for fans of Cabaret and Chicago. May 8, 2008

incredible film

This is one of my favorite films. Creative, theatrical, thought provoking and something that I recommend to all my media students. April 19, 2008

Self-destruction has never been so entertaining

Is it an exceptionally dark musical or the flashiest drama about death ever filmed? Both! What makes this film so fascinating is the integration of virtuoso song-and-dance numbers with penetrating portraiture of a man on the brink of self-destruction, all wrapped up in a handsomely cinematic package. Joe Gideon (a thinly-veiled stand-in for director Bob Fosse, played with terrific natural gusto by the late great Roy Scheider) is obsessed with two things: work and death. We follow him through his exhausting outer life of the former and his tormented inner relationship with the latter, yet despite all this heaviness and bad vibes the movie is never less than 100% entertaining and engaging. Brilliantly acted, shot, edited and choreographed, ALL THAT JAZZ stands as one of the last triumphs of the 1970s American New Wave. March 20, 2008

Fantastic BIO pic of Fosse

Roy Scheider excels in this bio-pic of Fosse and Jessica Lange is at her
most beautiful. Music is wonderful and dancing is "Pure Fosse", an
American tradition now. March 8, 2008

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