Life Itself

[Greg_phpbb3_import1]

It's the Roger Ebert story and it's really fascinating. The story has two main thrusts. There is the overview of his life and reveals a lot of things I didn't know about. The other thrust is the last months of Roger's life. The director and Roger decide to make the movie on the day Roger heads back to the hospital for a broken hip. At this point, Roger already has had his jaw removed and he can only speak via the computer which sounds oddly like Stephen Hawking. (So, in two of the last three movies I've seen, people are speaking with a computer voice. Maybe that's a new genre?). The shots of jawless Roger are a bit disturbing. Basically all he has left is a flap of skin that connects his cheekbones. When he opens his mouth you can see his neck.

I liked Roger a lot more after this film. I was always on the side of Siskel from At The Movies. This movie humanizes Roger and doesn't pull any punches. He was an alcoholic. He liked the ladies. Again, for three movies in a row, I'm watching people I know are going to die before the end of the movie. That's not good for the psyche.

It's on Netflix. It's really well done and is a great but sad story.

[Drunk Monk]

I think I generally sided with Roger's opinions but liked Gene better because he had a cool name.

Some of this I knew.  Like I've seen Beyond the Valley of the Dolls (not DOOM recommended and the sword fights, well, sword is a euphemism here).  Some I didn't, like about his wife.  He was an amazing writer for sure, and I so respect that now as a professional hack. It was a tad long winded.  Roger's inevitable death was drawn out too long, and it ruminated on some ideas for more quotes than held my interest, but Scorsese & Herzog had great comments and it made me want to go to Cannes.  A decent doc, as they go, but I don't feel the need to read the book that this was based upon, although I might visit his site to read some old reviews, mostly to see if there's any stylistic stuff I might poach.