in the early days of the internets (or my early days of the internets), i discovered roger ebert's archive of movie reviews. what i found inside opened my eyes.
i grew up with parents who loved film, and had faith in the word of critics. since we assume our parents know everything, i started reading movie reviews at an early age. (i'm sure the GLOBE AND MAIL film dept. had no idea how young their readership skewed.) my parents had no interest in seeing children's movies, so we'd just watch the movies they wanted to see as a family... and more often than not I'd find myself liking the same movies the critics liked.
so why didn't they like the movies i liked?
ebert changed that. i'd seen his television show, but those truncated-for-tv soundbites could never reveal the tremendous skill for writing he actually had. i mostly just liked to see siskel and ebert argue, and cherished the secret thrill i felt when a "genre" movie my parents would never deign to see got two thumbs up.
it wasn't until those early internet days, immersed in ebert's archive, that i found a writer and critic who never once treated a science fiction or fantasy film as "lesser" than any other film. so what if they featured superheroes or spaceships? he judged all films by the same merit, as if a genre picture had just as much artistic value as a critical darling or oscar hopeful, an idea i had always believed but never seen expressed by anyone else. when a science fiction film didn't spell every detail out to the viewer, he would never brush it off as unworthy of analysis -- understanding was not a prerequisite of enjoyment to roger.
in 1998, a scifi film called DARK CITY was quietly released and quickly disappeared from theaters. i wanted oh so badly to see it, but 14 year old nimesh was alone in the universe on that count. eventually i found my way to the flick on video and fucking adored it. little did i know someone else was hosting DARK CITY screenings and discussing the film on college campuses, shouting as loudly as he could for people to watch this fantastic gem of science fiction. roger ebert provided an exuberant audio commentary for DARK CITY when it was released on dvd, and once again, i wasn't alone.
ebert became a true internet presence after he lost his ability to speak, and it was a joy to see him pick up a whole new generation of readers in spite of his health issues. i would read his pieces here and there, not as religiously as some, but one thing never changed: any time i caught a science fiction film that filled me with awe and wonder, i had to find out what ebert thought. last year, his perfect review of CLOUD ATLAS is actually what made me run to theaters to catch it before it disappeared just like DARK CITY so many years before it. i didn't miss my chance this time -- i ended up seeing it twice, and i can't wait to see it again.
now ebert is gone, and in this age of tomato-throwing review aggregators i can't imagine ever running to a movie theater based on the writing of a single critic ever again. we don't live in that world anymore. but every time I'm sitting by myself in an empty theater watching a scifi film that my friends couldn't care less about and critics are ignoring, i'll know the truth.
ebert is sitting right there with me.
2013.04.04