Synopsis
The surprising and entertaining life of renowned film critic and social commentator Roger Ebert (1942-2013): his early days as a freewheeling bachelor and Pulitzer Prize winner, his famously contentious partnership with Gene Siskel, his life-altering marriage, and his brave and transcendent battle with cancer.
Your Movie Library
Cast
- Stephen StantonRoger Ebert (voice)
- Roger EbertSelf - Film Critic
- Chaz EbertSelf - Ebert's Wife
- Ramin BahraniSelf - Filmmaker
- Richard CorlissSelf - Film Critic
- Nancy De Los SantosSelf - TV Producer
- Ava DuVernaySelf - Filmmaker
- Bruce ElliotSelf - Ebert's Friend
- Laura EmerickSelf - Journalist
- Emil EvansSelf - Ebert's Step-Grandson
Recommendations
- 100
The Playlist
James tells this unapologetic story with little sympathy, as per Ebert’s wishes, and a lot of passion—he wants the audience to really know who Roger Ebert was, and understand the importance of his work. - 100
Variety
James cuts — as in all of his best work — straight to the human heart of the matter, celebrating both the writer and the man, the one inseparable from the other, largely in Ebert’s own words. - 91
Hitfix
Life Itself gives measured and pragmatic reflection to many of the things that are most interesting about Ebert's personal and professional life. - 90
The Hollywood Reporter
James has done a wonderful job of telling a colorful life story. - 88
Chicago Tribune
This is a big-hearted, absorbing documentary about a writer who kept on writing until very near the end. Anyone who cared about Roger Ebert will find it necessary viewing. - 88
Chicago Sun-Times
Far more than just a tribute to the career of the world’s most famous and influential film critic, the often revelatory Life Itself is also a remarkably intimate portrait of a life well lived — right up to the very last moment. - 80
The Telegraph
This is an impressively clear-eyed and deeply moving portrait. - 80
Time Out
Unusually moving (not only to stray film critics in your crowd), director Steve James's keen profile of the late, great Roger Ebert works both as a compact appreciation of the reviewer's vast public impact, as well as an unflinching peak into a cancer patient's final months, fraught with pain, hope and constant treatment.
