Life Itself

Well before the beginning of the very honest and open health struggles that finally claimed his life in April 2013, Pulitzer Prize-winning critic and TV star Roger Ebert was already America's feisty, folksy, film-literate grandpa. He was a great critic who inspired a lot of bad criticism—you can't fake folksy, although many have tried. Ebert had a special knack for communicating directly and personally to his readers, conveying authority and intelligence without coming off as pedantic, a trait that only improved when thyroid cancer robbed him of speech. Therefore, it's appropriate to the subject that Steve James' affectionate documentary Life Itself, based on Ebert's autobiography and shot as he was fading away in a Chicago hospital, works as a sincere and powerful portrayal of mortality and undying love, while tabling discussion on Ebert's place in the critical pantheon other than to say, “F*** Pauline Kael.” D.B.