Fridays haven't been the same for me without Roger Ebert. Sure, I read a number of other movie reviewers and film critics, locally and nationally, but it was always nice to check in with the Chicago Sun-Times to see what Mr. Ebert had to say. My poor husband's routine of reading and reporting on Ebert's review after we watched a movie together was shattered. (We were thrilled to discover, for example, that we were not the only two people on Earth to loathe Napoleon Dynamite.) The film critic has been recovering from surgery for salivary-gland cancer and related complications since early summertime. Various personalities such as Kevin Smith and Jay Leno have been filling in for him as reviewers on his TV show with Richard Roeper. Although Smith was certainly a colorful substitute, especially in his review of Half Nelson, it wasn't the same.But today, it feels like a proper Friday again. If you check out the Sun-Times website today, you can find a review by Ebert for Stephen Frears' new movie The Queen. He also has posted an update on his own website to explain his current health situation. He won't be able to return to TV until next year, and he won't publish reviews as regularly as usual, but he's still watching and writing. He also thanked everyone for their get-well wishes -- my favorite example of which is the Flickr pool of Ebert fans, who took self-photos with Ebert's traditional thumbs-up gesture. I hope he continues to recover speedily, and look forward to his next reviews.
1. Nothing like four paragraphs of robotic plot summary to remind you how great film criticism can be.
Posted at 1:50PM on Oct 13th 2006 by Vincent Gallo's Witchdoctor