Cabaret (1972)

This is hailed as a tremendously effective and affecting adult musical that pulls no punches in depicting the rise of Hitler and antisemitism in Weimar Berlin. Minnelli’s magnificent Sally Bowles and Grey’s decadent MC, plus Fosse’s compelling cinematic moments, are highlighted as turning it into a lasting screen classic.

Cabaret is often overlooked as one of the great pieces of political film-making, castigating political complacency with knockout show tunes while tracking the rise of Nazism with sickening dread. It features a chilling camera movement and has informed pop iconography from Madonna to Beyoncé.

The critic praises Fosse’s 1972 film for breaking with glossy Hollywood musical traditions to chronicle a society sliding into totalitarianism. Minnelli and Grey’s performances, along with the dynamic, innovative staging of the Kander & Ebb numbers, are singled out as the film’s energetic yet despairing heartbeat.

The critic praises how the film perceptively unmasks the horrors of escapism and societal denial through its musical numbers and performances. The Blu-ray restoration is singled out for respectfully preserving the original's gritty cinematography and atmosphere.

This viscerally powerful, deliriously inspired musical stands the test of time. Bob Fosse's classic 1972 movie gave us one of Hollywood's great female leads in Liza Minnelli's Sally Bowles, with show-stopping dance sequences, genius cinematography and pure gold songs.

Cabaret is a great movie musical made miraculously without compromises, the first really innovative one in many years. It escapes grandiosity through a prismatic approach with superb design, lighting and color that evoke Expressionist art, remaining detached and objective while demonstrating faith in the audience.

The film version is literate, bawdy, sophisticated, sensual, cynical, heart-warming and disturbingly thought-provoking. Fosse's generally excellent direction recreates the milieu of 1930s Germany with an expertly accomplished adaptation that returns the story to varied settings.

The critic praises the film's razzle-dazzle choreography by Fosse and electrifying performances from Minnelli and Grey, calling it a hugely enjoyable, occasionally chilling musical that holds up as a great one of style and sleaze.

The film is an immensely gratifying imperfect work that feels like a movie coming to life. Fosse confines the musical numbers to the club stage and integrates them inventively through crosscutting, with Minnelli magnificently right for the film overall despite occasional wrong details in her role.

The adaptation is called a maddening mixture whose superbly choreographed cabaret numbers vividly evoke 1931 Berlin’s gaiety, perversion and rising Nazi menace. Crude cross-cutting is singled out as pushing the film into overstatement.

The critic calls Cabaret a fantastic movie and a musical for people who hate musicals, praising how Fosse keeps the numbers diegetic and the atmosphere intact while exploring the rise of fascism. It is positioned as an equal to The Godfather in 1972's legacy, with strong performances especially from Joel Grey.