All That Jazz

Name: All That Jazz
Genre: Drama, Fantasy, Music, Musical
Released: December 20, 1979
Duration: 123 min
Rating: 72
Cast: Jessica Lange, Roy Scheider

1979

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Generally favorable reviews based on 13 Critic Reviews

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Generally favorable reviews based on 21 Ratings

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8.0	User Score Generally favorable reviews based on 21 Ratings

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All That Jazz

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Movie Details & Credits

Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation | Release Date: December 20, 1979 | R

Starring: Jessica Lange, Roy Scheider

Summary: Director/choreographer Bob Fosse tells his own life story as he details the sordid life of Joe Gideon (Roy Scheider), a womanizing, drug-using dancer.

Director: Bob Fosse

Genre(s): Drama, Fantasy, Music, Musical

Rating: R

Runtime: 123 min

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Critic Reviews

100

Empire Kim Newman

Savagely witty on backstage life and audaciously edited, Jazz stands alongside Cabaret as the best musical of the last 20 years. Read full review

Scott Tobias

Fosse spins his runaway narcissism into self-effacing humor and filters the darkest themes through electrifying song-and-dance numbers. The musical sequences are a lesson in choreography, not just for Fosse's renowned wit and invention in handling his dancers, but also in the editing, which fuses music and movement in perfectly timed cuts. Read full review

Noel Murray

All That Jazz is one of the most self-indulgent movies ever made—but blessedly so. Read full review

Josh Larsen

Bob Fosse’s half-confession about what a jerk he was to the women in his life may pull a lot of punches, but there’s just too much art on the screen to completely disregard the effort. Read full review

Staff (Not Credited)

All That Jazz is a self-important, egomaniacal, wonderfully choreographed, often compelling film which portrays the energetic life, and preoccupation with death, of a director-choreographer who ultimately suffers a heart attack. Read full review

TV Guide Magazine Staff (Not Credited)

All That Jazz is great-looking but not easy to watch; Fosse's indulgent vision at times approaches sour self-loathing, and nothing like the explicit open-heart surgery had been seen on mainstream American screens, let alone the morbid song-and-dance routines in an operating theater. Read full review

Staff (Not Credited)

The jokes are relentlessly crass and objectionable; the song'n'dance routines have been created in the cutting-room and have lost any sense of fun; Fellini-esque moments add little but pretension; and scenes of a real open-heart operation, alternating with footage of a symbolic Angel of Death in veil and white gloves, fail even in terms of the surreal. Read full review

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joelgreenberg

Jul 6, 2021

I saw All that Jazz on its first run, in 1979, and at the time I was moved by some of it, although I grew increasinglky annoyed as the film moved to its narcissistic conclusion. Watching it again today, I am struck by the vile nature of the Fosse surrogate, played by Roy Scheider. The sceneI saw All that Jazz on its first run, in 1979, and at the time I was moved by some of it, although I grew increasinglky annoyed as the film moved to its narcissistic conclusion. Watching it again today, I am struck by the vile nature of the Fosse surrogate, played by Roy Scheider. The scene that most evokes this response is one following a night of sex with a dancer named Victoria.
The rehearsal hall is awash in dancers and Victoria is being put through her paces by her choreographre-lover - he humiliates her, berates her, drives her to tears and then he takes her aside to say he can't make her a great dancer, but he hopes and wants to make her a good enough dancer. He has that power, of course, to make or break - and Victoria, speaking through her sobs, smiles at hime as he pats her head and the assembled company of artists, who have been witness to this assault, applaud the victory. In 1979 this was icky, and in 2021 it is downright sick-making.… Expand

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