Roger Ebert + blog = subscribed. (via house next door)
NY Times film critic A.O. Scott penned a short appreciation of fellow reviewer Roger Ebert for the Sunday Times, particularly his TV work.
His criticism shows a nearly unequaled grasp of film history and technique, and formidable intellectual range, but he rarely seems to be showing off. He's just trying to tell you what he thinks, and to provoke some thought on your part about how movies work and what they can do.
Roger Ebert announces his return to his Sun-Times reviewing gig...but not his TV show because he's currently unable to speak.
Are you as bored with my health as I am? I underwent a third surgery in January, this one in Houston, and once again there were complications. I am sorry to say that my ability to speak was not restored. That would require another surgery. But I still have all my other abilities, including the love of viewing movies and writing about them.
Good luck, Roger!
Roger Ebert's list of the best films of 2007. He gives Juno the top slot.
Almost a year late, Roger Ebert shares his top movies of 2006 with us.
Yes, I know it's a year late, but a funny thing happened to me on the way to compiling a list of the best films of 2006. I checked into the hospital in late June 2006 and didn't get out again until spring of 2007. For a long while, I just didn't feel like watching movies. Then something revolved within me, and I was engaged in life again.
I've never met Ebert, but his love of movies resounds so emphatically from his writing that if he didn't feel like watching them, he must have been closer than I thought to shuffling off the ol' mortal coil. It's nice to hear his enthusiasm again. (via crazymonk)
An incredible archive of all the televised reviews of Siskel and Ebert (and Roeper) after 1986. Here, for example, is Siskel and Ebert's review of Die Hard from 1988. (thx, martin)
Some have advised Roger Ebert not to attend his yearly film festival because of his changed physical appearance due to recent cancer surgery. Ebert says nuts to that...he may look a little strange, but his brain still works, his thumbs still go up and down, and he can type his columns just fine. "We spend too much time hiding illness. There is an assumption that I must always look the same. I hope to look better than I look now. But I'm not going to miss my festival." I love Roger Ebert.
Roger Ebert's been out of commission for the past few months due to cancer surgery, but he's eager to return to his normal duties. "I still love writing about the movies. Forty years is not enough."
David Denby talks about films with "disordered narratives", with a special focus on the films of Guillermo Arriaga and Alejandro González Iñárritu: Amores Perros, 21 Grams, and Babel. Many of the films he mentioned are what Alissa Quart, Mark Bernstein, and Roger Ebert refer to as "hyperlink cinema" or "hypertext films"...too bad Denby didn't use that term in his piece.
Ebert's best movies of 2005. Crash tops the list, which was probably my favorite from 2005 as well.
Chris Johanesen has a short review of the Eyebeam panel last night. "I'd certainly rather read an insightful and well-written post about sandwiches than an unoriginal, poorly thought out post about politics." I like that Ebert quote too.
Among Roger Ebert's most hated films are Catwoman, Baby Geniuses, Battlefield Earth, and The Usual Suspects(?!?). About North, he says: "I hated this movie. Hated hated hated hated hated this movie."
