Liza: A Truly Terrific Absolutely True Story

How this woman does not have a Kennedy center Honor I do not know. She's one every award there is to win EGOT and dozens more. This movie deserves one itself it's fun funny and goes by so fast Don't blink. You'll laugh you'll cry and you'll clap. It's wonderful to see and hear Liza narrate on top of everything else. Pure Bliss. Do not miss this! I wait with bated breath to see it again on PBS what a wonderful love letter to one of the greatest talents of our time. Everyone clapped at the end of this in the theater and that does not happen for movies very often. I cannot remember any that I've seen in the theater where people clapped like this. That tells you everything you need to know. I would have sat through a second showing if they would have let me. The direction and editing are top notch they cover Liza from birth to legend in the blink of an eye. My only complaint is that it was definitely too short it was over so fast like a fun ride at the amusement park. Keep your eye on this to win awards and your hearts. Enjoy everybody.

Splashy documentary on actress/singer/dancer/legend Liza Minnelli isn't really about her movie career or her albums and concerts--it's about Life as Liza: her famous parents (Vincente Minnelli and Judy Garland), her many mentors (Kay Thompson, Charles Aznavour and Fred Ebb among them), her many friends, her marriages and love affairs, her addictions, and her resilience. Beginning with a recent Minnelli interview (in which she's surprisingly bossy), writer-director Bruce David Klein eschews Liza's stage and screen credits (except for "Cabaret") in favor of her personal life--something which Minnelli isn't particularly keen on discussing. What Liza does like to talk about is her friendships--she's a loyal lady and gets loyalty in return--and Klein has assembled some good interviews, previously unseen on-stage and backstage footage, and snippets of razzle-dazzle to make this a fast, entertaining 100mns. Half-sister Lorna Luft is interviewed, but their current relationship isn't brought up; Klein would rather give us the histories of Kay Thompson and fashion designer Halston, also a predictable jaunt back in time to Studio 54. I guess if you want to go through Liza's career step-by-step, the many TV-made biographies will have to suffice. Here, we get Vulnerable Liza, Tough Liza, Hard-working and Exhausted Liza. She breaks into song at the end ("But the World Goes 'Round"), accompanied by pianist and great friend Michael Feinstein, but Klein drowns Current Liza out with a clip of '80s Liza belting the song on-stage. We want to know how the lady is doing, but this scrapbook of memories is stuck in the past. *** from ****

A few weeks ago, we had a Liza Minnelli two-fer, starting with her delightful cameo on the "Drag Race" S17 finale followed by this breezy 90-minute documentary that's more a loving tribute than a deep-dive into all that is Liza (which would need a mini-series). I loved the doc from just the name, which sounds like a lyric from "Ring Them Bells", and I appreciated the film's focus on Liza's fierce loyalty, a theme as constant as her life in the spotlight. In this film, Liza's icon status is on full display, from childhood memories of Judy Garland to her "Cabaret" performance and EGOT-winning career. We hear charming anecdotes, like stepping in to save "Chicago" on Broadway, and witness how tragedy shaped her path. It doesn't dwell on rehab or personal darkness, but celebrates her resilience, reminding us that she sparkled from the very beginning.

I am a huge fan of Liza Minnelli and saw this yesterday. A friend saw it last summer at the Tribeca film festival and told me I'd love it. But I had read a few reviews that noted Klein did not spend any significant time on Liza's films other than Cabaret. As a fan who loved her in other films such as The Sterile Cuckoo, Arthur, Stepping Out and especially New York, New York, I went in somewhat dubious.

No worries. The aforementioned films are acknowledged in one way or the other, and it becomes obvious that the filmmaker's approach is not going to be of the traditional "and then she did this and then she did that" variety.

A lot of material is covered in a fast paced 104 minutes and Klein leaves you wanting more. The film opens with a brilliant sequence detailing Judy Garland's death post-title card and from then on I knew Klein needed no advice from me.

There are electrifying goosebumps galore, particularly at the too-soon end (you will know what I mean).

There is a lot of backstage stuff I'd never seen. The movie is quite funny, sometimes wickedly so. There's a sly dig at Lorna Luft (blink and you might miss it) that made me laugh out loud. Liza herself semi-narrates and is interviewed on screen (to great, often touching effect).

This is a doc that plays like a conventional movie and is accessible to anyone, not just her fans. Broadway buffs will devour it and I hope it receives the Oscar next year. Even though that's a dicey category at AMPAS, I can't imagine this dazzlingly edited, supremely entertaining romp not getting at least a nomination. It's the classy tribute Minnelli has long deserved and she must be over the moon with just how damn good it is.

Minnelli has often said she has an eye for picking the right people for the right job when it comes to her work. Well, she's done it again with Bruce David Klein.

This sparkling sleeper is a masterpiece. My friend was right. I did love it and can't wait to see it again. In a theatre, which it deserves.

It's a flick that will make you happy, and it has entered the world at exactly the right time.

As a lifelong fan of Liza I went into this expecting more. It focuses very specifically on the period of her life between the death of her mother and around 1980.

It's really far more about the lives and talents of the many people with whom she surrounded herself and found influence creatively, and I do understand that in many ways that *IS* who she is. However I was hoping for exciting stories and what I got was quite a lot of discussion about how she met and worked with people like Halton, Kander & Ebb etc... and those stories, though beautiful and lovely in their own way, aren't particularly exciting.

The documentary seemed to go to great lengths to steer clear of any in depth discussions about anything that might be controvserial or lascivious, and there is even a moment in the film when Liza denies anyone having ever done drugs at Studio 54, which feels less like naive denial and more like a woman who is bound and determined to maintain as pristine a public image as she can (despite her openness about struggling with addiction.)

What was really shocking was that her deep and longstanding connection with gay men wasn't even *mentioned*. In fact the only time queerness came up was when it was briefly acknowledged that her first husband was gay, which was yet again a topic that might have been interesting to discuss but was breezed past.

There is very little in the way of actual interviews with present-day Liza telling her own stories, and that to me is where the whole project failed the most.

It might have fared better as a 60 minute TV special than a nearly two hour documentary, as after the first hour I actually found myself getting bored.

Liza herself is a *STAR*. The documentary, for me, just isn't.