Film Review: Life Itself


Life Itself

KARTEMQUIN FILMS

There’s a scene early in Life Itself when a hospitalized Roger Ebert, missing his lower jaw after multiple surgeries for thyroid cancer, needs his throat suctioned. The camera holds steady as Ebert winces through the procedure, but then an email box pops up on the screen. “great stuff!!!!!” types Ebert, no longer able to speak. “I’m happy we got a great thing that nobody ever sees: suction.” Director Steve James (Hoop Dreams, The Interrupters) blends an intimate end-of-life story with Ebert’s wide-ranging biography: precocious college newspaper editor, recovering drunk, screenwriter of the schlocky Beyond the Valley of the Dolls, friend and critic of Hollywood’s biggest names. But for all of Ebert’s exploits, it’s the private moments James captures, like his increasingly brief email responses as cancer slowly wins out, that endure.

This review originally appeared in our September/October issue of Mother Jones. 

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In "It's Not a Crisis. This Is the New Normal," we explain, as matter-of-factly as we can, what exactly our finances look like, how brutal it is to sustain quality journalism right now, what makes Mother Jones different than most of the news out there, and why support from readers is the only thing that keeps us going. Despite the challenges, we're optimistic we can increase the share of online readers who decide to donate—starting with hitting an ambitious $300,000 goal in just three weeks to make sure we can finish our fiscal year break-even in the coming months.

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