…is a rerun of my What Film Critics Do meme thingy:
Ebert is a huge part of why I do what I do. It was because of his work with Gene Siskel on At the Movies on PBS that I first got an inkling that it was possible to talk about — to argue about — movies. His effect on me and what I’ve done with my life is incalculable.
I hate hate hate hate hate it — to paraphrase Ebert — when a writer says he or she is at a loss for words. You’re a writer, dammit. It’s your job to find the words. I’ve said this to writers I’ve been editing who’ve taken that lazy route.
But… I have no words right now.
So I’m just gonna go back to writing the review I’ve been working on this evening. And then I might watch another movie.
“So I’m just gonna go back to writing the review I’ve been working on this evening. And then I might watch another movie.” Sounds like the perfect way to honor Roger Ebert. R.I.P. When I started getting into movies his reviews we’re what helped give me my basic film education.
Seconded. Keep doing what you’re doing: praise and eviscerate movies that deserve either.
“What’s more, I’ll be able at last to do what I’ve always fantasized about doing: reviewing only the movies I want to review.”
that makes me sad. but i’m so grateful he reviewed all those pieces of garbage that he didn’t want to bother with.
I didn’t find out about Ebert until the thing with Siskel was over. But he inspired, I think, pretty much all the reviewers I now read, and his own reviews were always worth reading even when he’d clearly missed the point of the film completely.
(At least when the Sun-Times made it possible to distinguish his own reviews from those of its other writers, which wasn’t always the case.)
I think he probably inspired most critics — at least those from the US and maybe Canada — under 50.
Great, MaryAnn!