When Roger Ebert announced his leave of presence from his website on April 2, 2013, no one expected that would be his last entry. At that point, the production for “Life Itself” had barely started and filming was still in its initial stages.
Film lovers around the world mourned the loss of Ebert when he passed two days later. For so many years after so many film reviews and despite all of his health battles, Ebert seemed immortal. “Life Itself” is not simply about a film critic, but the film critic of the 20th century.
Steve James, director of “Life Itself” and “Hoop Dreams,” a film Ebert enthusiastically supported when it was released in 1994, did not have a personal relationship with Ebert prior to making the movie. After reading his 2012 memoir with the same title, James saw the importance of presenting the life of Ebert to the public in a visual form. The film stays true to Ebert’s memoir in both style and content.
“Life Itself” is an intimate look into the fascinating life of Ebert. From his early start at a traditional newspaper to the film criticism empire he accrued over the course of his life, we follow Ebert’s triumphs and struggles. While Ebert was a well-known public figure for the past few decades, the film delves into private details about his life never before discussed. The high degree of honesty James and Ebert had with each other gives the film a very genuine, if not vulnerable, feeling. From watching his struggles in the hospital to hearing about the suicidal thoughts he had as a young man before entering Alcoholics Anonymous, Ebert lets us in to every aspect of his life.
James adapts the fluid storyline of Ebert’s memoir in his cinema vérité style of filming. The camera gives us a personal view of Ebert’s interactions with his wife and friends as if we were there with them the whole time.
The movie is filled with anecdotes from every part of Ebert’s life. From co-workers to filmmakers who were inspired by Ebert, James makes it apparent that the critic’s existence positively affected the lives of many.
When the film isn’t focusing on the life of Roger Ebert, it is discussing how he has shaped how film criticism is today. From traditional journalism to broadcasting his show with Gene Siskel, “At the Movies,” Ebert was always at the forefront of how to get information out to the public. Besides seeing highlights from his career, we see videos of Ebert vacationing with his family, photos of him with his journalism friends at their old hangouts and letters between him and his wife, Chaz, when they first started dating. The movie shuttles between past and present, focusing on an aspect of his younger years before showing the viewer how it shaped him as he grew up.
While James could have easily gone down a tragic route, waiting to reveal that the first weeks of pre-production were going to be Ebert’s last, there is a pleasant tone throughout. Though James is not afraid to show us Ebert as his worst, the film focuses more on the happiness Ebert found everyday in life till the very end. “Life Itself” is a time-traveling biography that fondly lets the viewer into the life of one of the most widely renowned critics of all time.
“Life Itself” (115 min, R) is now showing at E Street Cinema on July 4.
