All That Jazz (film) "an essentially funny movie that seeks to operate on too many levels at the same time... some of it makes you wince, but a lot of it is great fun... A key to the success of the production is the performance of Roy Scheider as Joe Gideon... With an actor of less weight and intensity, "All That Jazz" might have evaporated as we watched it. Mr. Scheider's is a presence to reckon with." "Variety" described it as "a self-important, egomaniacal, wonderfully choreographed, often compelling film" and added, "Roy Scheider gives a superb performance as Gideon, creating a character filled with
All That Jazz (film) the titular role of "The Stand-Up"—the film-within-a-film version of "Lenny"—after having played the role of Lenny Bruce in the original theatrical production of the show (for which he won a Tony Award), but was passed over for Fosse's film version of the production in favor of Dustin Hoffman. Reviews were largely positive. "All That Jazz" scores an 86% "Fresh" (or "good") rating on review aggregation site Rotten Tomatoes based on 36 reviews. In his review in "The New York Times", Vincent Canby called the film "an uproarious display of brilliance, nerve, dance, maudlin confessions, inside jokes and, especially, ego" and