Life Itself
Magnolia Pictures | Release Date: July 4, 2014 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
87
METASCORE
Universal acclaim based on 35 Critic Reviews
Positive:
35
Mixed:
0
Negative:
0
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
80
SlateDana StevensDec 15, 2014
The heart of Life Itself, and the part of the film that’s most instructive even for those familiar with Ebert’s story, is the long middle section dealing with his stormy, never-resolved relationship with Gene Siskel. Read full review
100
Total FilmSimon KinnearDec 10, 2014
The film’s power lies in its use of archive footage, voiceover and even Ebert’s computerised speech translator to keep the writer’s voice alive. Read full review
80
EmpireNick de SemlyenNov 10, 2014
A clear-eyed celebration of a giant of film writing. We’ll refrain from the thumb jokes, but consider this a hearty recommendation. Read full review
100
Tampa Bay TimesSteve PersallJul 31, 2014
Life Itself impressively covers the elements of Ebert's memoir. Read full review
100
New Orleans Times-PicayuneMike ScottJul 18, 2014
Chaz Ebert says that Roger would have loved Life Itself. I'll take her word for it. She knew him far better than I did. Clearly. But I'll add this: I love it, too. Read full review
75
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Liam LaceyJul 10, 2014
When it came to describing what was happening to him, Ebert was forthright, clear-eyed and admirably free of neurosis and self-pity. Read full review
88
St. Louis Post-DispatchJoe WilliamsJul 10, 2014
Directed by Steve James, whose “Hoop Dreams” Ebert hailed as the best film of the 1990s, it’s the kind of documentary the dying man wanted — honest, humane and inclusive. Read full review
88
Miami HeraldRene RodriguezJul 10, 2014
“Movies are a machine that helps us generate a little empathy,” Ebert said about films. Life Itself is a lovely, eloquent tribute to a man who devoted his existence to showing us just that. Read full review
78
Austin ChronicleLouis BlackJul 9, 2014
Eloquent, it is surprisingly moving and beautifully structured. Read full review
88
Rolling StonePeter TraversJul 9, 2014
Don't miss it. Though Life Itself is a warts-and-all portrait Ebert didn't live to review, my guess is his thumbs would be shooting upward. Mine sure are. Read full review
75
San Francisco ChronicleWalter AddiegoJul 5, 2014
It's fascinating stuff, but secondary to Ebert's genuine passion for the movies, which, if anything, grew toward the end of his life. He saw film as a great civilizing force, "a machine that generates empathy," as he says in the film. If that idea appeals to you, see Life Itself. Read full review
88
RogerEbert.comMatt Zoller SeitzJul 5, 2014
Life itself, that loaded two-word phrase, is what Roger really wrote about when he wrote about movies. Read full review
83
Christian Science MonitorPeter RainerJul 5, 2014
His greatest legacy, however, as this film documents, was his courage in the endgame of his life. Read full review
75
Washington PostAnn HornadayJul 4, 2014
You may not have agreed with Ebert’s reviews — you may not have thought he was such a nice guy. But if you aren’t moved by Life Itself, you ought to have your heart examined. Read full review
80
Arizona RepublicBill GoodykoontzJul 4, 2014
Life Itself is a joy for people who love movies or who love anything with an unwavering passion. Read full review
80
TheWrapAlonso DuraldeJul 3, 2014
Life Itself paints a captivating portrait of a man who embraced life and art, whose spirit never flagged even when his body did. You don't have to be a film critic to find inspiration from Roger Ebert's extraordinary life. Read full review
90
Village VoiceStephanie ZacharekJul 3, 2014
James — the director of Hoop Dreams and The Interrupters — gives us a sense of Ebert as a man who kept reinventing life as he went along — out of necessity, sure, though he also took some pleasure in adapting. It couldn't always have been easy, but that, too, is part of the story. Read full review
80
Los Angeles TimesKenneth TuranJul 3, 2014
Life Itself may sound like it's a film that would only be of interest to those who knew Ebert personally or to fellow film critics, but the opposite is true. Read full review
100
The New York TimesGeoffrey O’BrienJul 3, 2014
Life Itself is a work of deftness and delicacy, by turns a film about illness and death, about writing, about cinema and, finally, and very movingly a film about love. Read full review
100
ReelViewsJames BerardinelliJul 3, 2014
This is a uniquely powerful motion picture, the kind of open and honest portrayal I can't ever recall having seen about a celebrity. Life Itself stands not only as a moving piece of documentary cinema but an epitaph. Read full review
90
The DissolveGenevieve KoskiJul 3, 2014
Death is a part of life—one that informs everything we do, on some level or another—and watching Ebert characterize whatever time he has left as “money in the bank,” from what viewers know is his deathbed, is life-affirming and heartbreaking in equal measure. Read full review
100
Portland OregonianMarc MohanJul 2, 2014
Anyone who shares Ebert's love of movies and who followed his career will be exceptionally moved by Life Itself, but anyone who appreciates a well-lived life should be touched as well. Read full review
100
New York Daily NewsJoe NeumaierJul 2, 2014
The irony is that Ebert famously lost his actual voice. Yet as the extraordinary documentary Life Itself shows, that couldn’t quiet one of America’s most beloved critics and cultural commentators. Read full review
100
Entertainment WeeklyChris NashawatyJul 2, 2014
In the end, cancer may have cruelly taken Roger Ebert's voice, but it couldn't silence his greatest gift: his ability to speak to his audience directly, honestly, and with empathy. Thumbs up. Read full review
75
New York PostKyle SmithJul 1, 2014
Roger Ebert makes an unusual candidate for a documentary: He was a writer, which isn’t cinematic, and not the swashbuckling kind. He didn’t go to war zones, just movies. Read full review
63
Slant MagazineChuck BowenJun 29, 2014
There's a sense throughout of Steve James rushing and dutifully covering all his bases to evade accusations of creating a puff piece. Read full review
91
HitfixDaniel FienbergMay 22, 2014
Life Itself gives measured and pragmatic reflection to many of the things that are most interesting about Ebert's personal and professional life. Read full review
88
Chicago Sun-TimesBruce IngramApr 17, 2014
Far more than just a tribute to the career of the world’s most famous and influential film critic, the often revelatory Life Itself is also a remarkably intimate portrait of a life well lived — right up to the very last moment. Read full review
80
Time OutJoshua RothkopfJan 27, 2014
Unusually moving (not only to stray film critics in your crowd), director Steve James's keen profile of the late, great Roger Ebert works both as a compact appreciation of the reviewer's vast public impact, as well as an unflinching peak into a cancer patient's final months, fraught with pain, hope and constant treatment. Read full review
88
Chicago TribuneMichael PhillipsJan 27, 2014
This is a big-hearted, absorbing documentary about a writer who kept on writing until very near the end. Anyone who cared about Roger Ebert will find it necessary viewing. Read full review
77
Film.comJames RocchiJan 27, 2014
It isn’t surprising how warm and enjoyable Life Itself is – James is a singularly talented documentarian who literally owes his career to Ebert, and Ebert approached the facts of being filmed the same way he faced films, or for that matter faced anything: With honesty and good humor. Read full review
90
The Hollywood ReporterTodd McCarthyJan 27, 2014
James has done a wonderful job of telling a colorful life story. Read full review
100
The PlaylistChase WhaleJan 27, 2014
James tells this unapologetic story with little sympathy, as per Ebert’s wishes, and a lot of passion—he wants the audience to really know who Roger Ebert was, and understand the importance of his work. Read full review
80
The TelegraphAmber WilkinsonJan 27, 2014
This is an impressively clear-eyed and deeply moving portrait. Read full review
100
VarietyScott FoundasJan 27, 2014
James cuts — as in all of his best work — straight to the human heart of the matter, celebrating both the writer and the man, the one inseparable from the other, largely in Ebert’s own words. Read full review
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