Directed by renowned documentarian Steve James with Martin Scorcese as Executive Producer (both appear throughout the film), this is a love letter to the late Roger Ebert, long-time film critic of the Chicago Sun-Times, and to his wife Chaz. It was begun with their collaboration before Ebert’s death. He was already unable to eat, drink, or speak. This Ebert is honestly shown. Based on Ebert’s memoir of the same name, the film chronicles his rise to becoming the most important and significant critic with a Pulitzer in hand) in American history. Others, such as Pauline Kael, may have changed the critics’ sense of film and meaning more, but Ebert made it accessible and real to the masses of Americans. Never slighting his history, it pays special attention to his hate/love relationship with his “Siskel and Ebert and the Movies” cohost/nemesis/eventual friend, Chicago Tribune critic Gene Siskel. It also goes deeply personal, with real attention to his drinking, his love-match/marriage to Chaz, and the excitement he found in friends, family, and fans. He was special. Although I often agreed with Siskel more than Ebert, I think RE was the more profound and systematic thinker about film as both high and popular art. He made that accessible in his writings and speeches, several of which I’ve listened to and which are sometimes quite insightful. He was both a critic and friend of many of the auteurs whose work he admired, including Scorcese, Werner Herzog, and younger filmmakers like James, Ava DuVernay, and Rahin Bahrani. I found the use of vocal impersonation by an actor who did Ebert’s script disconcerting and would have preferred it not be presented by a vocal mimic (Stephen Stanton, who is very good). . Overall, however, this is a touching and joyful recounting of this man who helped transform how the nation learned about and thought about movies for half a century.