One of our very favorite pop culturists, for more than a decade Nathan Rabin has been head writer for The Onion A.V. Club. He's equally at home writing about Epic Movie or western swing, and you don't want to be on the receiving end of his wicked sarcasm when it's time to mete out a takedown.
Yesterday, Roger Ebert's boyhood home in Urbana was granted landmark status in a ceremony which included Mayor Laurel Prussing. Ebert and his wife Chaz were present for the placement of a bronze plaque at 410 E. Washington St. where he lived with his parents from 1942 to 1961. He obviously has very fond memories of the place, writing, "I was born at the center of the universe, and have had good fortune for all of my days." The beloved film critic was in town to kick off his 11th Annual Ebertfest, spotlighting underseen and underappreciated movies.
Has there been a more predictable year for the Academy Awards than this one? Not since Titanic, in our view; and wouldn't you know it, Kate Winslet is up for Best Actress again. Roger Ebert is predicting a win for her, one for Sean Penn in Milk, and a whole mess of awards for the all-but-unstoppable acclaim-train that is Slumdog Millionaire. In an annual tradition Mr. Ebert once again invites you to try and outguess him for a chance to win a trip for two to the world premiere of Disney/Pixar's Up. If the results are as surprise-free as we're expecting, outguessing Ebert is going to hinge on a wild card category like Best Documentary (he's predicting Man on Wire, but don't overlook Trouble the Water).
We made it about three weeks into our "No Mariotti New Year" resolution, but damnation if we have to go and bust it. In an interview with RealClearSports, Jay the Joke goes out of his way to generally shit on everyone and everything in his way. Including the Pulitzer-Prize winning, Steak & Shake loving, everyone's-favorite-movie-critic, Roger Ebert. This aggression will not stand, man.
Photo by sfmoe
Image taken outside the Governor's Mansion in Springfield by Anonymous, printed with owner's permission via L. Stolpman
Sad news today out of Connecticut where legendary actor Paul Newman passed away at 83 due to lung cancer. We've always loved Newman (Butch Cassidy & the Sundance Kid and Cool Hand Luke being favorites) and thought he only got better with age (Road to Perdition). Sun-Times film critic (and local cultural hero) Roger Ebert remembered Newman's work and life in his column today.
I met him several times, most memorably in 1968, on the set of "Butch Cassidy." Yes, his eyes were blue. Very blue. He was genial, relaxed; it felt more like hanging out than doing an interview. Between scenes, he held court in his trailer, sometimes sipping a beer. He was not closed-off and self-protective like many superstars, not seeming overly impressed with himself. One reason he and Woodward lived in Connecticut, he often said, was to have a more normal life than was possible in Hollywood. It was that sense of accessibility that audiences responded to.Amen, Roger. There are so many great scenes to choose from, but we'll always love this one from Cool Hand Luke. No man can eat 50 eggs.
Aside from being one of the city's most recognizable cultural icons, as well as a bad ass who has battled cancer and kept churning out quality work, movie critic Roger Ebert has a wicked sense of humor, as this Q&A from earlier in the month shows [via kottke].
Q. Yo dude, u missed out on "Disaster Movie," a hardcore laugh-ur-@zz-off movie! Y U not review this movie!? It was funny as #ell! Prolly the funniest movie of the summer! U never review these, wat up wit dat?Continue reading "Roger Ebert Pwns Us All"
Sleep with one eye open, New York Post film critic Lou Lumenick! We're coming for you. Lumenick whapped our beloved Roger Ebert with a gigantic binder at a screening at the Toronto Film Festival.
We'll stop the Jay Mariotti coverage one of these days, but this open letter from Roger Ebert is too damn good to pass up. It's titled "Jay the Rat," and it ends "On your way out, don't let the door bang you on the ass." Our love for Roger Ebert knows no bounds. Full missive after the jump. [Ebert]
Roger Ebert announced today that he too is leaving , which means that poor ampersandy bastard has to run the show all by himself; Richard Roeper already announced his departure.
The man who put film criticism on everyone's cultural map and one of Chicago's favorite sons Roger Ebert celebrates his 66th birthday today. This serves to remind us of the gaping hole left next to Rich Roeper (a voice from the Peanut Gallery, "What about the gaping hole that is Rich Roeper?" ha-ha, smartypants) during Suffice to say, if they were to get rid of Rich et al entirely, have Ebert simply write longhand for 25 minutes about the week's films, and then just hold it up to the screen for us to read for the final five, we'd be fine with that.
Illness has been playing an unwelcome role in my life these days. After unsuccessful surgery in January, I ended up back in the friendly confines of the Chicago Rehabilitation Institute. Graduating from there in good shape to attend Ebertfest, I went to the wonderful Pritikin Longevity Institute for more exercise. I was there one day and -- whoops! -- my shoe caught on a rug and I fell and broke my hip. Nobody’s fault.Continue reading "Ebertfest Goes On Without Ebert"
Send good thoughts Roger Ebert's way tomorrow. He's having surgery again. [S-T]
A classic's a classic (above). But just in case you were thinking about sitting through the latest CGI remake, here's a bad review review from local critics:
Thinking about going to the movies tonight? Looks like everyone in town is warning you against Good Luck Chuck, the Dane Cook/Jessica Alba rom-com whose plot keywords on IMDb are ... wow. Inspired by Matthew Baldwin's genius Bad Review Reviews, we present highlights from Chicago media's terrible reviews of GLC. Scott Tobias, AV Club: "Proof that a million MySpace users can be wrong." Michael Phillips, Chicago Tribune: "The film is some sort of humor-deprivation...
A few days ago we unwittingly created a monster when we expressed our frustration about having to wait to see the schedule for this year's Chicago International Film Festival, which runs October 4-17. Well, we finally have a copy of said schedule in our hot little hands. What follows is a very brief, cursory summary of what you can expect this year (the full schedule will be online within the next few days). Regardless of...
- In case you've missed the previous screenings of local film Crime Fiction, produced by former U of C students, you've got another chance to see it this evening at this month's edition of the Midwest Independent Film Festival. That's at the Landmark Century. There'll be an afterparty just around the corner at Cousin's. - Starting this Wednesday night at 6, Jonathan Rosenbaum presents a weekly series of film screenings and lectures at the Siskel...
It's been inspiring to see Roger Ebert slowly working his way back to writing movie reviews after his long illness. He's even gone so far as to give readers reviews of movies he missed while he was convalescing. Just don't expect to see the "thumbs up" or "thumbs down" signs in upcoming episodes "Ebert & Roeper at the Movies." Disney-ABC Domestic Television, which produces the show, said that the Pulitzer Prize-winning film critic has withdrawn...
Winner of a special prize at the Berlin Film Festival, #12 on Metacritic's All-Time High Scores and one of the first 50 films chosen for preservation in the National Film Registry, Killer of Sheep has always been a film more talked about than seen. Until now. This week you'll probably be hearing a lot more about it, because twenty years after it was finished it's finally getting a release; it opens Friday at the Music Box.
A.O Scott’s review of the new Michael Moore movie begins with a very astute observation; namely, that whenever Moore’s name is brought up it is inevitably attached to adjectives such as “polarizing,” “controversial,” “provocative,” and “muck-raking.” And that it is the media itself which perpetuates the use of these adjectives. Would one describe Steven Spielberg as “polarizing?” Spielberg has two films in the top ten highest-grossing films of all time and no one describes him that way. Yet (among documentaries) Moore has two films in the top five. How “controversial” can a filmmaker be and yet sell so many tickets? We just think he’s a filmmaker possessing a keen instinct for issues that get people riled up, which is a good thing.
We can be scatterbrained sometimes. There's just so much cool stuff going on all the time that it's easy to forget a few things now and then. And that's exactly what happened yesterday when we neglected to give a shout out to Mr. Roger Ebert, who celebrated his birthday. There's a soft spot in our collective heart for Mr. Ebert. Long ago we forgave him for his once-scathing reviews of David Lynch films; for one,...
This week we'd like to congratulate the -ist network's Mother Hen, Gothamist's Jen Chung, who found herself a recipient of Wired Magazine's Wired Rave Award. If that doesn't sound terribly exciting, keep in mind another recipient was J.K. Rowling. Yep, that's right, the -ist network and Harry Potter now have something in common. Go us. Austinist has a chat with the ever-fashionable Golden Girl Rue McClanahan, and managed to catch some local fashionistas making...
Tonight, Roger Ebert will make a public appearance at the opening of his annual Overlooked Film Festival. It's the ninth annual, and it's held at the University of Illinois at Urbana. Roger wrote a really great piece yesterday about his recent surgeries and his illness as it concerned his attendance at the festival. Cancer of the salivary gland spread to his right lower jaw, and a segment of his jaw was removed. He had two...
One of our favorite writers, Dawn Powell, once wrote, "Satire is people as they are; romanticism, people as they would like to be; realism, people as they seem with their insides left out." This explains why the documentaries of Frederick Wiseman, some of which are screening at the Chicago International Documentary Festival starting this weekend, often feel so scathing. They show people as they are, not how we usually see them, and in doing so...
Chicago sure seems conducive to fostering public relationships between critically abrasive duos. We produced one of the most famous teams in movie criticism with Siskel and Ebert, and who can ever forget the headline-shattering team of Marin and Mancow? We think it’s time to add DeRogatis and Kot to that list as well. Greg Kot and Jim DeRogatis head up Sound Opinions, what they claim to be the world’s only rock 'n' roll talk show....
Chicagoist is not immune to the nostalgia that strikes all media entities at the end of the year, as evidenced by the orgy of posts this week that looked back at significant happenings in food, booze, theatre, art, music, movies and photography. The desire to pontificate on this year's newsworthy events in Chicago is a powerful one, but we're saving ourselves for tomorrow night. Chicagoist co-editors Rachelle Bowden and Scott Smith will be guests on...
"... when people ask me today where I live, I am often tempted to say instead of Chicago, I live on the Internet."
CPD Making Fewer Arrests Under Weis
Farewell, Chicagoist
Chicago Olympic Bid Team Suing Owner of Chicago2016.com
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