Documentary
Starring Roger Ebert, Chaz Ebert, Gene Siskel
Directed by Steve James
The Story:
Life Itself is the story of Pulitzer Prize winning movie critic Roger Ebert. Undoubtedly, anyone who has ever gone to a movie has at least seen the effect that Ebert and his partner Gene Siskel made on the movies: 2 thumbs up!
I shamelessly steal that tagline for the title of this review.
I probably now owe someone some money... : /
Anyway, growing up, I lived to see what movies were coming out, and what reviews Siskel and Ebert would give those films.
Sometimes they were right, sometimes they were wrong.
Sometimes they fought with each other.
Wait, who am I kidding, they ALWAYS fought with each other! :)
And that was the best part of the show.
Oil and water, they could go round and round, and you would swear the two hated each other.
After watching the documentary, that still may be true.
But there was respect there, grudgingly or not.
Anyway, this film started as a documentary to recount Ebert's life to that point, up to and including the surgeries to remove cancer from his body which robbed Ebert of his voice, but not his passion for writing.
His voice lived on through his keyboard and he still reviewed movies on his website up to the very end.
Which sadly, yet sweetly, this movie happened to be filmed at the right time, so to speak, and captured the passing of the legendary film critic.
Needless to say, this was a great documentary about a great life, lived fully.
No doubt, it's highly recommended.
Available to stream instantly on Netflix as of this writing.
Final Grade: A
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