72
Metascore
13 reviews · Provided by Metacritic.com
- 100EmpireKim NewmanEmpireKim NewmanSavagely witty on backstage life and audaciously edited, Jazz stands alongside Cabaret as the best musical of the last 20 years.
- 91The A.V. ClubScott TobiasThe A.V. ClubScott TobiasFosse 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.
- 90The DissolveNoel MurrayThe DissolveNoel MurrayAll That Jazz is one of the most self-indulgent movies ever made—but blessedly so.
- 88Slant MagazineEric HendersonSlant MagazineEric HendersonAll That Jazz may be Fosse’s finest cinematic achievement.
- 80The New York TimesVincent CanbyThe New York TimesVincent CanbyAn uproarious display of brilliance, nerve, dance, maudlin confessions, inside jokes and, especially, ego.
- 60TV Guide MagazineTV Guide MagazineAll 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.
- 50Washington PostGary ArnoldWashington PostGary ArnoldBy the time the film is over, the movie has degenerated with a jaundiced vengeance. Fosse's sour, grandstanding cynicism imposed an intolerable burden of self-pity on his talent, our compassion and the tradition of the backstage muscial.
- 30Time OutTime OutThe 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.