{"id":32956,"date":"2015-02-15T21:32:06","date_gmt":"2015-02-16T05:32:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/?p=32956"},"modified":"2015-02-15T21:47:58","modified_gmt":"2015-02-16T05:47:58","slug":"life-itself-steven-james-2014-usa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/?p=32956","title":{"rendered":"Life Itself ( Steven James, 2014): USA"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Reviewed by Shelby Harris at the Santa Barbara Film Festival 2015.\u00a0<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone\" src=\"https:\/\/4.bp.blogspot.com\/-odStIu6q-Kg\/U7d7DInJ-MI\/AAAAAAAADes\/ZvqOzwhwfc4\/s1600\/LIFE+ITSELF+SISKEL+EBERT.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"299\" height=\"198\" style=\"margin: 0px 10px 0px 0px; float: left\"\/ ><\/p>\n<p>Life Itself is a documentary film based off of film critic Rodger Eberts memoir, the film documents the the final\u00a0few months of his life and legacy as well as\u00a0the cultural impact he&#8217;s made on the lives of millions. Acclaimed for one of the most influential cultural voices in America, Rodgers journey takes his audience through moments of insight, laughter and heart break.<\/p>\n<p>The film opens up with a posing voice over narration of Rodger, discussing the first time film has impacted his life with old photos and footage guiding the audience through the chronicles of his life. On a spiritual quest for love and acceptance Rodger finds his true talents as a critic for the cinema. First launching his career in the newspaper industry Rodger knew he had more destined for his future and moved his\u00a0expertise as a young film critic to a television show.<\/p>\n<p>Throughout the film there are cut in&#8217;s and outs of clips from Rodgers\u00a0glory days staring as as television host along with partner Gene Siskel.\u00a0Rodger was passionate for film and even through times of pain and his current condition, he\u00a0never stopped doing what he loved.<\/p>\n<p>Rodger kept his legacy alive by writing blogs with dedicated tributes. He\u00a0inspired and acknowledged directors for their\u00a0films based with depth, creativity and original scripts.\u00a0The documentary contains interviews with directors such as\u00a0Martin Scorsese ( The Wolf of Wall Street, GoodFellas\u00a0and The Departed) Ava DuVernay (Selma) and Werner Herzog (Cave of Forgotten Dreams) whom all develop a close relationship with Rodger as his career progressed.<\/p>\n<p>Rodger began writing with creativity and intensity, using his blog and social media as an outlet to escape his illness and disability. With no boundaries in his writing he challenged and accepted a variety of issues and standpoints addressed in today&#8217;s world and cinema. Criticizing with thoughtfulness and authenticity he continued to inspire readers across the globe.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Reviewed by Shelby Harris at the Santa Barbara Film Festival 2015.\u00a0 Life Itself is a documentary film based off of film critic Rodger Eberts memoir, the film documents the the final\u00a0few months of his life and legacy as well as\u00a0the cultural impact he&#8217;s made on the lives of millions. Acclaimed for one of the most [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":36899,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[75,3,255],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-32956","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-documentary","category-films","category-santa-barbara-film-festival-2015"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32956","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/36899"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=32956"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32956\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=32956"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=32956"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=32956"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}