--- title: "Cabaret: the reviews" canonical: "https://film.one/film/cabaret/reviews" title_page: "https://film.one/film/cabaret" critics_score: 85 critics_reviews: 11 licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL." --- # Cabaret (1972): what the critics said Critics' score 85 from 11 reviews: 10 positive, 1 mixed, 0 negative. Most critics agree that Cabaret is one of the few musicals that is also serious political film-making, following the rise of the Nazis in Weimar Berlin without softening it. The praise gathers around Bob Fosse’s decision to keep the numbers on the club stage and cut them against the life outside, and around the two central performances: Liza Minnelli’s Sally Bowles and Joel Grey’s Master of Ceremonies are named again and again. Several reviews credit the film with breaking the glossy Hollywood musical for good, and the design, lighting and colour are compared to Expressionist painting. The spread is narrow, with ten of eleven reviews positive. The reservations sit almost entirely on the editing. Time Out calls the film a maddening mixture and finds the cross-cutting crude, pushing it into overstatement. The New York Times, writing on release, admires it a great deal but calls it imperfect and picks at details in Minnelli’s performance. Nobody disputes the numbers themselves. ## Radio Times — Tony Sloman Rating 5/5. 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. [Read the review](https://www.radiotimes.com/movie-guide/b-5wlv4o/cabaret/) ## The Times — Kevin Maher Rating ★★★★★. 6 May 2022. 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. [Read the review](https://www.thetimes.com/culture/film/article/classic-film-cabaret-1972-review-3vg76sd2k) ## Little White Lies — Jarek Kupść Fi1m's normalised score 90/100 (inferred from the text). 13 February 2022. 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. [Read the review](https://lwlies.com/in-praise-of/cabaret-bob-fosse-social-critique) ## Slant Magazine — Eric Henderson Fi1m's normalised score 90/100 (inferred from the text). 8 February 2013. 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. [Read the review](https://www.slantmagazine.com/dvd/cabaret/) ## The Guardian — Peter Bradshaw Fi1m's normalised score 90/100 (inferred from the text). 21 June 2002. 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. [Read the review](https://www.theguardian.com/film/2002/jun/21/culture.peterbradshaw) ## The New Yorker — Pauline Kael Fi1m's normalised score 90/100 (inferred from the text). 12 February 1972. 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. [Read the review](https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/1972/02/19/grinning) ## Variety — Variety Staff Fi1m's normalised score 90/100 (inferred from the text). 31 December 1971. 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. [Read the review](https://variety.com/1971/film/reviews/cabaret-2-1200422826/) ## Empire — Kim Newman Fi1m's normalised score 85/100 (inferred from the text). 1 January 2000. 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. [Read the review](https://www.empireonline.com/movies/reviews/cabaret-review/) ## The New York Times — Vincent Canby Fi1m's normalised score 70/100 (inferred from the text). 14 February 1972. 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. [Read the review](https://www.nytimes.com/1972/02/14/archives/liza-minnelli-stirs-a-lively-cabaret.html) ## Time Out — TM Fi1m's normalised score 50/100 (inferred from the text). 11 November 2011. 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. [Read the review](https://www.timeout.com/movies/cabaret) ## Collider — Rob Vaux Fi1m's normalised score 85/100 (inferred from the text). 13 February 2013. 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. [Read the review](https://collider.com/cabaret-blu-ray-review/) --- © Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Our review: https://film.one/film/cabaret.md