Life Itself

Have I mentioned before that I love documentaries? If I have, the reason is because of multi- faceted aspects including vital information with facts and figures and the entertainment element to tie all this info together so as to leave the audience with something important to think about. As with the case of "Life Itself", this has all the ingredients of a well delineated, well thought out documentary with just the right amount of drama and comic relief to keep us riveted.

This recounts the surprising and entertaining life of world-renowned film critic and social commentator Roger Ebert-- a story that's by turns personal, wistful, funny, painful and transcendent. The film, based on Ebert's memoir, "Life Itself" explores the impact and legacy of Roger Ebert's life: from his Pulitzer Prize-winning film criticism and his nearly quarter-century run with Gene Siskel on their "Sneak Previews" review show, to becoming one of the country's most influential cultural voices, and finally to Roger's inspiring battles with cancer and the resulting physical disability with his wife Chaz clearly at his side every step of the journey. And this also delves into how he literally and symbolically put a new face on the disease and continued to be a cultural force despite it.
This interviews those that were affected by him personally and professionally which include directors, Martin Scorsese and Werner Herzog, filmmaker Ramin Bahrani, critics A.O.Scott, Richard Corliss and Jonathan Rosenbaum, Siskel's wife Marlene Iglitzen, producer Nancy De Los Santos, friends Roger Simon, William Nack, John McHugh, and Rick Kogan, and Josh Golden who assisted him in chronicling his life and work for this film.

This was directed by documentarian Steve James ("Hoop Dreams" (Documentary) '94, "Passing Glory" (TV movie) '99, "Stevie" (Documentary) '02, "Reel Paradise" (Documentary) '05, "The Interrupters" (Documentary) '11, "Head Games" (Documentary) '12) plus others. James had always wanted to work with Ebert in some capacity, so when he had heard of Ebert's memoir was to come into being to be turned into a film, James jumped all over it, and won Ebert over after they met. This is extremely comprehensive and exhaustive including his upbringing, college years, the early years of reporting, his Pulitzer Prize to subsequently meeting and marrying his wife Chaz at the ripe age of 50 years. This man was phenomenal-- he was a film critic for half the time movies had been made and no other film critic had won the coveted Pulitzer before Ebert's win nor since then.

If you like documentaries, you'll love this. In fact this will probably go down in film history as one of the finest, most comprehensive documentaries made. So I beseech you to go see this and prepared to be amazed and entertained at the same time.

Out of 4 Stars: 4                                Rated: R                                119mins.