Review of Life Itself (2014) by Ananisapta — 09 Mar 2015

Director Steve James has created a haunting documentary of a brilliant, warmhearted, courageous man of letters who lived his life to the last particle and died in bed surrounded by friends. If you want to feel good, stop there.

Great art should haunt its audience, and I found this film especially disturbing because of its unflinching portrait of the American way of death. However much I admire the protagonist's courage and his family's devotion and the commitment of his caregivers, there is an undeniable grotesquerie to Ebert's protracted ending which is visible from the beginning of this film. It is not for those who believe that virtue should be rewarded in this life, or that celebrity confers immunity.

Along the way, you will get to know Ebert's stellar colleague and artistic foil, Gene Siskal. Though given less room, Siskal was more than Ebert's sidekick and seems to have lived equally broadly and to have encountered a brisker though no less tragic fate. Also prominent are Ebert's loving family and several of those who helped promote his career or simply stood by and wondered.

To make a film about one of filmdom's preeminent critics takes a courage all its own. I would say Steve James has succeeded admirably. To criticize a film about Roger Ebert takes almost more hubris than even I can summon, but the only bad thing I can say is that James succeeded unexpectedly in haunting me with his powerful images.