Quartile rating: 8/10 · 1 rating
Joe Gideon is at the top of the heap, one of the most successful directors and choreographers in musical theater. But he can feel his world slowly collapsing around him - his obsession with work has almost destroyed his personal life, and only his bottles of pills keep him going.
Bob Fosse's semi-autobiographical fever dream is one of cinema's most audacious self-portraits. Roy Scheider delivers a career-best performance as Joe Gideon, capturing ego, brilliance, and self-destruction with uncommon honesty. The cinematography by Giuseppe Rotunno is visually stunning, blending surreal fantasy sequences with gritty backstage realism. Novelty is exceptionally high — no other film so boldly fuses Felliniesque autobiography, Broadway showmanship, and a meditation on mortality; its conception is utterly singular. The ending — a spectacular, ironic production number as Gideon dies — is one of cinema's great finales, both devastating and theatrically brilliant. The plot is slightly less distinguished than the film's execution; its episodic, self-indulgent structure can feel meandering, which keeps it from a top score in that category.