Review of All That Jazz (1979) by Tor M — 27 Aug 2018

When I watch "the closet picks" series from "The Criterion Collection" I often see film heads picking and praising this film. I guess that made me curious so I gave it a go myself.

This is not the typical musical, but probably one of the best of the genre, at least a very uniqe one. Roy Scheider portray Joe. A man that breathe for shows and big productions where choreography is involved. He is some character and not many people like him. Well, only dancing girls that at least pretend to like him as they have sex with him to get roles or even advice. After a while more stuff opens up about our man. His daughter, his ex-wife, his pill abuse and even his feelings. He is a heavy smoker and it get's him eventually. He is in the middle of a great, big show and when he is hospitalized he refuse to give up his life. Both the show and his way of living - girls, cigs and booze.

Well acted and some very good production. Big scenes and a very well told film with an excellent pace. There's singing and dancing here, often catchy songs and some cool moves too, actually. The later scenes with shows are frequent as Joe makes them up when he is in his hospital bed. They are about him. His successes and his mistakes.

I liked the film quite a whole lot and with some big similarities to "8 1/2" and being one of Kubric's favorites, this is something different and interesting. Not something I would put on favorite lists, but definitely a big musical-ish film with depth and seriousness that's excellently shot.

7.5 out of 10 eyedrops.