Liza: A Truly Terrific, Absolutely True Story, the much-anticipated new documentary from Bruce David Klein about the larger-than-life singer and actress who is identifiable only by her first name, enjoyed the second night of its World Premiere run on Thursday, June 13th as part of the Tribeca Film Festival. The audience, which was surprisingly diverse in terms of age, clearly loved every bit of Liza that they got– although, in the traditions of any talented performer, Liza still left her fans begging for more. Liza was born a star. Her unique persona and her impact on pop culture arguably need no exposition. Somewhere in the middle of the doc, theater director Ben Rimalower described Liza in a moment from a scene in the movie Cabaret: “It’s Liza doing what Liza does that no one else does…and it’s Liza doing it better than Liza has ever done it!” Whoa!
Granted, those in the audience who had never heard of Liza (And kudos to them for coming, if indeed there were any…) wouldn’t quite “get it”. But undoubtedly, the seemingly infinite number of guys and gals in Liza’s transgenerational fan base knew EXACTLY what Mr. RImalower meant by his observation. The documentary focuses almost entirely from the timespan of Minnelli’s life after the death of her mother Judy Garland in 1969, when the then-23-year-old performer really came into her own as a star in her own right, not just as “Judy’s daughter”. Younger audience members who only knew of Liza from the later part of her career got the chance to see the star in her glory-with-a-capital-“G” days, when she was, without hyperbole, the face of 1970’s showbiz glitter, glamour, and grandeur– complete with custom-made eyelashes and that ever-present cigarette in hand. Seeing Liza do those high kicks and complex dance moves remains eye-popping to this very day. The documentary makes it a point that one of the star’s most emblematic performance moments remains her 1972 TV special Liza With a “Z”. That show was a groundbreaker in its own right: It was the first filmed concert to be shown on TV and would go on to win to win four Emmys and a Peabody Award.
As you may have figured out by now, Liza: A Truly Terrific, Absolutely True Story is filled with LOTS of performance footage, talk show and news story clips, scenes from her movies, and still photographs. A main focus of the film is the spotlighting of the men and women who have influenced her career through the years. The first was Kay Thompson, who became a quirky godmother figure after Liza’s mother passed. While Ms. Thompson’s impressive contributions to show business have often been overlooked through the ears, the audience of Liza: A Truly Terrific, Absolutely True Story learned just how much a major influence that Thompson was on Liza’s career. Other influences included Charles Aznavour, Bob Fosse, Fred Ebb, and Halston. All of these stars helped shape Liza’s patented look, persona, and trajectory of her career. Despite the title of this film being long enough already, this documentary could accurately be subtitled “The Making of Liza Minnelli”
The array of Liza’s friends and peers in the show business world which director Bruce David Klein has assembled deserves a special shout-out. The audience is treated to soundbites from Michael Feinstein, Lorna Luft, Mia Farrow, Jim Caruso Ben Vereen, Chita Rivera, Joel Grey, Darren Criss, and others. Two major things separate this documentary from past explorations of the Minnelli mystique. The first is the large amount of never-before seen vintage footage, which holds up remarkably well despite its age. This includes a large number of “home movie”-style videos of Liza and Kay Thompson together just “hanging out”, with Thompson offering some sound advice to a young Liza: “Don’t waste your time with dull people!”: It seemed almost like a predecessor to the Instagram live video. Fast forward to more recent times, and the audience gets to spy on a video of a makeup-free Liza dishing with her gal pals Marisa Berenson and Michelle Lee.
The second thing that makes this documentary unique is that the film actually features Liza in her own words. At 78, the star clearly wears her years, despite the filmmakers’ fastidious attention to makeup, lighting and camera angles. That said, Liza is still unmistakably Liza, with all of her patented “Liza-isms” and unafraid to let an occasional “F word” fly. Since Liza’s public appearances have been few and far between as of late, her presence was very welcome. Again, if there was yet another subtitle for this doc, it would be subtitled: “Liza Has Her Say”.
Despite Liza having her say, the singer– true to form– remained quite restrained on the subject of drugs and sex. She even said, (jokingly?), that “nobody did drugs” at Studio 54. There’s a reason for this: Thanks to her famous parents, who were considered royalty of “old Hollywood”. Liza will always be closely associated with that era. Since those days, both the showbiz industry and the very whole concept of “celebrity” itself have changed. Liza may have been a poster girl for 70’s-style vintage vice, but her ties to the glossier days of celebrity and her inherited aura of classic Hollywood glam seem to have influenced her into trying to keep her private life—well, as private as possible. Thankfully, the other participants in the movie have NO problem talking about her exes: mostly favorably– except for her last husband. Yes, David Gest does take a LOT of abuse in this doc… but not as much as the audience has to endure when they see a closeup of Gest’s face taking up the enter movie screen. (Don’t say you weren’t warned…)
Liza: A Truly Terrific, Absolutely True Story doesn’t waste a single second of its valuable time; every moment is no less than fascinating. This fan, in particular, would have wanted to hear about any future projects (An autobiography? An authorized biopic?), and especially wanted to know what Liza thinks about the many performers who continue to imitate her even as we enter the second half of 2024; She remains an eternal LGTBQ icon. Watching the segment of Liza adjusting the camera angles, with her famous eyelashes almost taking on a life of their own, seems to be patently made for a drag act. As mentioned before, seeing Liza on the big screen for 104 minutes still left her fans begging for more. Let’s all hope that there’s more on the way…
LAVENDER AFTER DARK (because life begins when the sun goes down...) 