When reviewing a movie focused primarily on one of your idols, it is fair to look at that review and take it with a grain of salt. So, if at any moment, you read this review and feel like I am just patting this movie on the back for the sake of it, know that I would never intentionally do that. But, that said, I understand your thinking.
Life Itself is the new documentary from Steve James (Hoop Dreams), which dissects and devolves into the final days of film critic Roger Ebert. It’s about as sincere and genuine as any documentary could possibly be — critic/idol-based or not. What could have so easily turned into just a puff piece on this influential man’s life quickly becomes a powerfully engrossing and heartbreaking thesis on what made Ebert the legacy he was.
That said, as an examination on the life, legacy and final months of Ebert’s time on this planet, Life Itself—based loosely on Ebert’s autobiography of the same name—is basically critic porn. It’s a movie about one of us, and writing an encouraging review feels almost mandatory. Unless, of course, the movie found a way to absolutely drop the ball in every way possible.
But, despite a couple early moments in the movie’s first act where friends and family praise Ebert for all he’s worth, the movie is rarely just a self-praising documentary only willing to comb the surface. As the meat of Ebert’s television and pop culture phenomenon grows, so too does the movie’s restrictions into seeing just the greatest of Ebert’s personality.
Early on, the movie devolves into Ebert’s early years, where—even then—he carried an ego of a man twice his age and a drinking habit around the same par. Where so many other documentaries would address this and move on, Life Itself paces itself, and allows his friends to speak on how these years would shape Ebert’s later personality and his tendency for lacking restraint. In case you were wondering, his weight is also addressed here too.
Since this movie is an odyssey on Ebert’s full life, these moments are obviously brief but hold a tremendous power nonetheless. For, even when showing the uglier sides of Ebert’s life and persona, the film constantly finds ways to show why Ebert was so likeable and, therein by, so well-respected and liked. Crossed with some tremendously fluid editing by James and David E. Simpson, and this thoughtfulness streams throughout, but never slows the movie down either.
At the heart of the movie’s conquest, as one would expect, is Ebert’s relationship with his fellow critic and co-host Gene Siskel. A frenemy correspondence that—ironically—rivaled and sometime triumphed the complex character relationships in the movie’s they reviewed on a daily basis. This conquest is one of the centerfolds of who Ebert was, as a person and most definitely as a critic and celebrity.
What makes these scenes so fascinating and later so heartbreaking is that James is not afraid to explore the singular nature of his central film piece. The biggest concern one could have—one I did—going into this movie is that it would be just a puff piece for the fallen, beloved critic. While at times this is the case, the movie is not afraid to explore the demons and character flaws in Ebert’s persona. And this level-headedness comes distinctly in the moments where the movie reflects on Siskel and Ebert.
Thanks to the collected interviews from family members and friends on both sides, the movie showcases that Ebert could often be an egotistic control freak and Siskel could be a pompous ass. But they both were wildly intelligent—especially when it came to film—and both knew how to take it as much as they could dish it. That’s what made them such a wonderful on-screen combination, and it’s their friendship that’s at the core of what the movie explores.
This movie was probably supposed to be a look at Ebert’s third life resurrection and how, even with his extreme medical problems, he kept his public presence. James captures some captivating yet equally hard-to-watch moments from Ebert’s final months. It’s hard not to imagine how these intimate scenes were captured. But, in watching them, these initiate progressions only make the movie stronger. They witness a losing battle in Ebert’s constantly bubbly persona, and many things that were left behind the curtains for so long following his absence from the show in 2006.
There are certainly bumps on the road in Life Itself’s running time. As much as the documentary tries to accomplish its level-headedness, it still cannot escape endlessly praising Ebert as a person. But, as the movie’s reaches its final moments, it’s hard not to get swept up in the movie’s sincerity, even if he wasn’t an idol.
Considering how much Ebert was influenced by his own written reviews, it is a weird, quasi-surreal experience to write a film review so draped in his life, work and well-being. But, with that said, Ebert’s life, by all means, deserves to be given the big screen treatment that he wrote and spoke about on a constant basis. Much like Ebert himself, Life Itself is a movie that, despite its hang-ups, always finds a way to immerse you, move you, make you laugh and blow you away. As a documentary exploring a man who did this to me on so many occasions, I can’t think of a better farewell.
Rating: 4/5 stars
