Life Itself (Steve James, 2014) : USA

Reviewed by Rachel Donovan. Viewed at the Santa Barbara International Film Festival 2015.

“I was born inside the movie of my life. The visuals were before me, the audio surrounded me, the plot unfolded inevitably but not necessarily. I don’t remember how I got into the movie, but it continues to entertain me.” – Roger Ebert (1942-2013)

One of my most favorite childhood memories is sitting around the television at my old house with my parents watching “At the Movies” and seeing what were the most liked and disliked films of the week. Getting the opportunity to see a private screening of Roger Ebert’s film, “Life Itself” along with a Q&A with his wife, Chaz Ebert, was a once in a lifetime experience that I will forever cherish.

I was only familiar with Roger Ebert as a critic, because that’s all I had seen him do growing up. As I got older, I also knew that he had some type of thyroid cancer, but thanks to this film, a learned a whole lot more about this incredibly gifted and talented journalist.

“Life Itself”, directed by Steve James takes the audience through the ups and downs of the last few months of Rogert Ebert’s life. The film starts from the beginning, giving a background on how Ebert got started. He worked as as ports writer when he was fifteen on a local newspaper and had dreams of attending Harvard. However, he ended up attending the University of Illinois which was close to his hometown. He was described as “a kid taking control of an adult situation” in his jobs seeing as he was so young in such an adult like environment. At age 21 he was the editor of the Illini Daily (the University of Illinois’ school newspaper) and was the youngest movie critic in America.

Ebert was described as “one of the finest storytellers I had ever seen” along with his writing style being praised as “fast and furious”. He also had some lows in his life, such as realizing he had a drinking problem, which led him to take his last drink at age 31 and attend AA meetings where he met the love of his life, Chaz.

He had many opportunities because of his writing and he was even awarded the first ever Pulitzer Prize to be given to a movie critic. In 1982 alongside Gene Siskel, he was the star of his own critic show titled “At the Movies”. Although he did not get along with his costar whatsoever, they made it work. Gene even said about Roger, “he’s an asshole, but he’s my asshole”.

What was so curious to me was how different Chaz and Roger were in terms of what to show in the film. Roger was all for showing the real nitty gritty truth as to what was going on in his life, whereas Chaz really wanted some private moments and for not everything to be on display. It was revealed that for some moments, Roger even went behind her back to get some raw footage of himself, such as how he was fed food through a tube. Roger even said that there was “no need to have a movie if it’s not going to be a good one”.

I am so grateful for the opportunity to see “Life Itself” and meet Chaz Ebert to get a real understanding into the amazing Roger Ebert’s life. It was inspiring to see that even though Roger was diagnosed with cancer and death was upon him, he still woke up everyday and continued to do what he loved while surrounded by his loved ones and a camera following his every step to get an inside look into his life for his adoring fans.