Salute to Roger Ebert
Roger Ebert's recent brush with the Fuller Brush Angel has brought me up selfishly short. Here's a man almost my magnetic opposite, politically, and yet — yet —
I miss his writing terribly. He's a film critic in the same way Ray Bradbury is a pulp sci-fi author. Moreso — Ebert is peerless. If Roger goes, so will my habit of reading movie reviews regularly. He almost never fails to be challenging or stimulating, and intelligent, though his taste can be questionable. And when he is none of that, it is because he is busy being scathing, or indulging in cute wordplay.
I read Roger the same way some people read the sports section or the comics, or watch the Daily Show. Thankfully, my 13-yr-old son feels the same way, and is wearing the covers off of "I Hated, Hated, Hated this Movie!"
"Peerless" is a word I almost never use.
He's just posted for the first time, having been unconscious for most of two months. I am happy he has such a devoted wife.
God bless the Eberts. My enemies should be as dull & insensitive!*
* Practicing Yiddish irony. You have to fill in the missing 2nd clause of the imprecation.
I miss his writing terribly. He's a film critic in the same way Ray Bradbury is a pulp sci-fi author. Moreso — Ebert is peerless. If Roger goes, so will my habit of reading movie reviews regularly. He almost never fails to be challenging or stimulating, and intelligent, though his taste can be questionable. And when he is none of that, it is because he is busy being scathing, or indulging in cute wordplay.
I read Roger the same way some people read the sports section or the comics, or watch the Daily Show. Thankfully, my 13-yr-old son feels the same way, and is wearing the covers off of "I Hated, Hated, Hated this Movie!"
"Peerless" is a word I almost never use.
He's just posted for the first time, having been unconscious for most of two months. I am happy he has such a devoted wife.
God bless the Eberts. My enemies should be as dull & insensitive!*
* Practicing Yiddish irony. You have to fill in the missing 2nd clause of the imprecation.
I'm with you on this one, wrymouth.
The thing that impresses me is how well his reviews stand up over the years - and when he's the contrarian, most reviewers (if not audiences) eventually come around to his POV.
I've always wanted to go to one of Roger's shot-by-shot analyses that he conducts at film schools - how fascinating that must be.
'Hated This Movie' is one of the funniest books I've ever read.
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