Powerful

Excellent and certainly provocative... If nothing else, the film is a real conversation starter.

The thing I enjoyed most about the film is the fact that it doesn't shy away from being a super-sized-cliche;

Actress is magnificent and exudes a hypnotic screen presence in this affecting drama.

From what I read, it was important to Roger Ebert for the film to show how he looked at the very end. It is definitely difficult and uncomfortable to watch, but that is of course why Ebert insisted that it be included. The problem for me was that they just kept going back to it again and again, and after a certain point, it seemed gratuitous and unnecessary. Yes, it is tough to watch him like that, and I didn't need to be reminded of that throughout the entire movie (it is interspersed with a mostly linear story of Ebert's life and career).I thought the best moments were what was shown during the "Siskel and Ebert" years...maybe someone should make a documentary just about that! There are so many laudatory reviews on IMDb that I felt I should provide a different perspective. It was by no means terrible, but not at all deserving of all the hype it has received.

Roger Ebert is a remarkable man. Not just because he was probably the most famous film critic in the world but because the last years of his life when he had no lower jaw because it was removed because of cancer yet he still managed to write film reviews and his blog thanks to help from doctors and his wonderfully loving family. This film talks about his frosty relationship with his TV film reviewing partner Gene Siskel and the work he did with directors Russ Meyer and Martin Scorsesi but really this is about the last years of his life and it's very sad. He was a great and prolific writer but not the most natural TV presenter but because of the respect he had among his peers that didn't really matter. RIP Roger Ebert A brilliant documentary.

Just got through watching this documentary of Roger Ebert's life and career on Netflix disc. Covering his beat at the Chicago Sun-Times, his TV appearances with rival Chicago Tribune movie critic Gene Siskel, and his final days incapacitated by health concerns with his wife Chaz by his side every step of the way, one gets touched by his determination-and sometimes dread-at what he went through and also how he always kept his sense of humor throughout all the ordeals. I suppose one could feel a little disappointed at no interview of the late Siskel's replacement, Richard Roeper, or even a mention of him but what is included should certainly be enough for anyone interested in the way Ebert lived. Anyway, anyone wanting to know more about this fascinating man's life should probably check out his memoir with the same title as this movie. So on that note, I highly recommend Life Itself.

I went into this film with a profound appreciation for Roger Ebert, both for his words and his philosophies about film, but left it with a sense of reaffirmation.Roger was, of course, a vibrant, opinionated, passionate, and empathetic person, someone who knew when to fight something and when to let something wash over him like a wave. His love for Chaz (and vice versa) and for his family went unmatched, and the film made that love palpable--as it did his love for motion pictures. This is a film that Roger Ebert would have appreciated, were he living now. I also get a sneaking suspicion that although Steve James is at the film's helm, somehow Roger was also there, behind the curtain, editing and rewriting all of the crappy dialogue.But this film is not really about Roger Ebert.Instead, Steve James has gifted us with an honest, untainted look at a human being. We see his faults and strengths, his cruelties and kindnesses, and in the end are left with an incredibly wonderful painting of what it is to be human in the first place. We see what it means to actually love others, to deal with pressures, stresses, and old age. We see what it takes to appreciate life, and then what it takes to leave it. In essence, it is a film bursting with life.Ebert loved the last few paragraphs of The Great Gatsby, in which Fitzgerald talks about the green light, the very essence that fueled Gatsby's grand, yet tragic fate. Ebert knew his light and followed it to the very end; it came from a projector.