1/16/10- All That Jazz

Tim 1/16/10: All That Jazz (3.5 stars) - Interesting film about Bob Fosse's life and loves and struggle to balance his busy schedule with his family relationships and toll that his fast-paced life has on him. It was really hard to get into at the beginning because all these different things were happening at once and the Fosse character wasn't really that likeable. The plot jumped back a forth between what was happening in present day and this sort of dream world, which we later find out is a type of limbo world where he can reflect on the life he lived.

Liz- All That Jazz (1979) 3 stars
Going into this movie, I had absolutely no idea what it was about, just that it was a Bob Fosse movie. I didn’t even read the back of the DVD case. I guess I didn’t think I’d need any information going into it, because I LOVE Bob Fosse’s choreography and he’s basically my dance inspiration, so I should just love the movie. Right? Well, not so much. Some background information going into it would have been really great and had I known this was a bit of an autobiographical account of his life, it would have made much more sense. I spent the first half of the movie pretty much lost, and wondering what the point was. I guess I was expecting (from my expectations as well as from the opening scene), the movie to be another A Chorus Line, or something like that. The alternate universe dressing room/death scenes with Jessica Lange were so confusing to me that I almost felt I had missed the memo saying that this film is best viewed when under the influence of heavy drugs. The second half was definitely better and I have to say this movie probably had the best death musical number of all time. I was hoping for more dance, but towards the end, it picked up. Ann Reinking is amazing and I really enjoyed watching her dance. After the movie was over, I did a little research and the more I read about Fosse’s life and what had influenced this movie, the more I liked it. If I had written this review before I took some time to think about it, I probably would have said I hated it, but it’s definitely growing on me. Reading about how the different characters were inspired by real people was interesting and I think I’d like to learn more about Bob Fosse’s life. There was something really self-indulgent about the story and the way it was done though. It reminded me of a time that I was in a play that was written and directed by the same person and it was semi-autobiographical. It was so personal to him that he really couldn’t see where it needed editing or what wasn’t working. I think Bob Fosse might have had the same problem. I did think it was a really interesting message about show business and how people’s lives can become secondary to the success of a show or a movie.