If you want to assess the career of Liza Minnelli, you have to look at her from four angles — as a singer, as a dancer, as a movie star and as Liza Minnelli, public personality.

As a singer, she was very good. As a dancer, she was all right, though I find myself rooting for her more than I’m enjoying her. And as a star in films, she was hit-and-miss, though one of those hits was “Cabaret,” so she can’t ever be dismissed. If anything, she was at least a better actor than her mother, Judy Garland.

But it’s as a public personality that she has most excelled. For about 60 years, she has been Liza Minnelli, the celebrity — plucky, game, good-humored, warm, urbane and yet jaw-droppingly naive. She’s been showing up as required, and she’s been oversharing. She’s been saying smart things and doing stupid things — and then admitting everything with disarming honesty. And she seems to have been operating from a zany assumption that a famous person can just be herself and it will work out fine.

Perhaps she was right, because Liza Minnelli is one of the most likable people in American public life. Seriously, if you dislike Liza, you might want to take a look at yourself and figure out what’s going on there. Or, better yet, just go see “Liza: A Truly Terrific Absolutely True Story,” the new documentary about her life and career, and become a convert. –San Francisco Chronicle
“… One of the revelations of “Liza: A Truly Terrific Absolutely True Story” is that even as Liza has had a life of upheaval, and her share of burdens (constantly getting asked about her mother being one of the main ones), she has also led a life of extraordinary joy. At 77, with an I’m-still-here candor, she is interviewed throughout the film, and she’s here to testify that she was not Judy Garland The Junior Wreck Edition.” – Variety