It's a film you've seen before many times. You know what it's really about. You know how it'll end. You know why it's made. It's that kind of self-burn you've watched a million times. It's often pretentious. It's feels like you should dislike it. It's indulgent, right?

No.

Biopics are a dime a dozen. And they are overdone. It's kind of exhausting to continually watch the same type of narrative. He was tortured! He was an asshole! He was probably scum! But! He was a brilliant artist. Most movies go like that. _All That Jazz_ seems to strafe so dangerously close to that territory over and over. But it kind of blows way past that so effortlessly.

This is one of the most self-indulgent films I've seen in a very particular fashion. But let me ask you: would it work any other way? There's an understanding that this indulgence never glorifies Gideon. It almost vilifies him. There are people around him who care for him--begrudgingly, probably. Every time it feels like Gideon succeeds, it comes at the heels of fate dragging him down. I cannot imagine the kind of critical eye you must have to turn on yourself in order to make a movie so totally filled with loathing for your persona.

I haven't seen a movie this good in a long, long time.