Unlike many of the films Mr. Ebert reviewed in his latter years, I never once felt manipulated.

| Original Score: 3.5/5 | Sep 15, 2022

No film in the festival is as critic-friendly; watching it, I finally understood how football players must feel about 'Brian's Song'.

| Jun 18, 2016

This is a sometimes painful but always inspiring tribute to one of the great members of our profession.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Jan 5, 2015

Movies help us think about who we are and how we live together. And as a movie, Life Itself is a heartfelt, clear-eyed tribute to a master.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Jan 5, 2015

With Ebert's blessing and encouragement, Life Itself is a warts-and-all look at how the son of an Illinois electrician and housewife became a prolific writer who spent 46 years as the film critic at the Chicago Sun Times.

| Original Score: 3.5/5 | Jan 5, 2015

What comes through most in Life Itself, a film named after Ebert's 2011 memoir, is his great, open-minded vigor.

| Jan 5, 2015

If you aren't moved by Life Itself, you ought to have your heart examined.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Jan 5, 2015

The film's core is footage shot during the last four months of Ebert's life, when he had lost most of his jaw and was unable to eat or speak. It's hard to see him in this state, which makes his frequent cheerfulness and humor all the more remarkable.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Jan 5, 2015

It's undercooked (we're not even told what movies he loved as a child) and a clip of the great New Yorker critic Pauline Kael speaking made me sit bolt upright thinking "Now you're talking."

| Original Score: 2/5 | Jan 5, 2015

Taking its title from Ebert's bestselling memoir, this lovely, insightful film is a splendidly watchable tribute to a truly cinematic life.

| Nov 16, 2014

With the man's passing, American film lost not just an inimitable figure but a voice that was as forceful and distinctive as it was ubiquitous.

| Nov 14, 2014

A film about a movie critic might not sound an attractive proposition, but Steve James's biographical documentary on Pulitzer Prize-winning, Chicago Sun-Times journalist Roger Ebert (who died last year) is deeply moving.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Nov 14, 2014

Fans of the great populist film critic Roger Ebert will be both moved and amused by Life Itself.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Nov 14, 2014

Steve James's cinematic take on Roger Ebert's autobiography stands as a warm tribute to America's most prominent mainstream movie critic.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Nov 14, 2014

[A] warm, well structured and affecting tribute as someone who lived a full life and refused to be afraid of dying.

| Nov 14, 2014

James puts Ebert's criticism carefully in context, and isn't guilty of either overstating his influence or whitewashing the less genial aspects of the man.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Nov 14, 2014

It's an inspiring documentary for critics, and anyone who loves cinema.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Nov 13, 2014

The strongest parts of the movie are those that deal with the sometimes radioactive relationship between Siskel and Ebert.

| Nov 13, 2014

A very worthy delve into a eventful life cut short by cancer.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Nov 13, 2014

A clear-eyed celebration of a giant of film writing. We'll refrain from the thumb jokes, but consider this a hearty recommendation.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Nov 10, 2014