There isn’t a player in this hardcore movie blogging game that wouldn’t pour a little out for Roger Ebert given the chance, as he and Gene Siskel were the original mack daddies and daddy macks of telling the American people whether a movie sucked or not. Alas, they’ve both moved on to the empty movie theater balcony in the sky, and for the first time since he passed away on April 4, 2013, Ebert’s story is being told in documentary form. Director Mike James is the man behind Life Itself, which reveals a personal look at Ebert’s rise to fame as the most powerful critic in the world, as well as his struggle with cancer and the subsequent loss of his ability to speak in 2007.
Life Itself features some of Ebert’s friends and favorite filmmakers discussing the relationships that they had with him over the years, and with James telling the story – his documentary Hoop Dreams was Ebert’s pick for the best movie of the 90s – it’s sure to be an emotional journey.