MaestroReviews

Deb and I are artists, painters actually. We go see films as often as once a week. That's right, we go to the theater and sit in a dark room with strangers to see movies. We rarely rent. We like "little" movies, foreign and documentary films. We try to stay away from mainstream and blockbusters whenever possible, but a couple sneak in each year. We seek out the obscure. We try to avoid violent movies, and that really limits our choices, most film makers seem to think violence makes a story interesting.
I try not to give anything away in the reviews, but offer an honest reaction.
We rate them 1~10, 10 being highest.

Saturday, July 19, 2014

Life Itself

Deb 8     Me 9

This is a straightforward documentary about film critic Roger Ebert. From the film makers point of view, whatta challenge! I imagine he keeps hearing a review of every shot as he goes along, what a high bar is set when trying to make a film about a film critic. But the guy clears it with room to spare. It is a very good movie. There is a ton of Ebert archival footage to draw from, living family and peers to interview, a huge body of work that reveals his knowledge and opinions, and a personal blog kept right up to the end of his life. Plus the film maker gets to shoot his own footage of his subject and has his input on content. And it is all put together masterfully. The way the story unfolds is just fabulous, I really liked it. AND I'm not particularly a fan of Roger Ebert, didn't know squat about him, but its a very good movie.
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