Life Itself (2014)

[K1stpierre]

Discuss

[Dark Jedi Master 007]

It's not playing anywhere near me, but I badly want to see this. 

[Jack Nevada]

Brilliant. Everything you could've hoped for in a Roger Ebert documentary. Celebrates it's subject but isn't afraid to criticise and show his difficult side.4,5/5

Edited July 15, 2014 by Jack Nevada hates movies

[Jake Gittes]

Starts to drag in the last 10 minutes or so, but other than that, a very entertaining and touching doc whose subject elevates it above its conventions. 

[CoolioD1]

Two Thumbs Sideways.

[The Panda]

I feel rather like a contrarian right now, I watched Life Itself on VOD and I didn't care for it at all. There were some interesting aspects, and it did a great job on showing you the man's life, but what it doesn't do (and this is something I find vital for a documentary to be successful) is give you a reason to care. It's a nice tribute for those who might already care about Ebert, but for somebody who always saw him as just another film critic, like myself, I kind of feel as if my time was wasted. The nicest rating I can really give the film is a C+ honestly.

Edited July 16, 2014 by The Panda

[Webslinger]

It's not playing anywhere near me, but I badly want to see this. 

 

Rent it on iTunes. It's available there right now for $6.99.

 

I loved it. I had read Ebert's reviews on a regular basis for nearly a decade before his death, and I watched the final season that he spent on television. Through those pieces and the many revealing essays he wrote on his blog, I thought that I already knew a great deal about the man. Proving me wrong, Steve James collects a bevvy of information about Ebert's life that either I didn't know, or that added to what I knew in intriguing fashion (for example, consider Siskel's widow speaking about a letter that Ebert sent her shortly before he died). The footage of Ebert's last months is also gut-wrenching to watch, and part of the difficulty of watching this footage comes in the realization that even in spite of all the physical challenges and the fact that he had to cope with the fact that he was going to be gone soon, he was still devoted to the people and art that he loved. It's all too appropriate that the last few months of a great movie critic's life have been chronicled as part of a great movie.

 

A

 

The most chill-inducing fact of this production? Steve James owes some of the surprisingly large success of Hoop Dreams (his breakthrough film) to Siskel and Ebert for championing it on multiple occasions on their show. Talk about a most poignant way of paying him back.

[Blankments]

It's very good, but I just feel like the fact that it brutally shows his decline in health stops it from being the celebration of his life it really could be. B+

[Jake Gittes]

The movie not shying away from his illness is the main, if not the only thing that actually elevates it above countless shallow "Celebration of life" docs.