I got to interview Ebert during the late '90s, and it was clear he always thought of himself as a fan. He founded his high school science-fiction club, published a mimeographed fanzine, and wrote short stories which appeared in Amazing and Fantastic. He knew us because he was one of us. I miss him.
growing up watching him on tv i had absolutely no idea what a brilliant essayist he also was in addition to being one of the sharpest critics to ever fuckin do it, i still think about that piece he wrote after the cancer took his ability to eat & taste
he was also delighted by really stupid comedy. He was a fun follow on twitter because you'd flip between insightful commentary on politics and/or film and then he'd link to an 80s commercial for a boat company called "Your and Your Johnson"
I saw one where he linked to a prank kit that was just a plank of wood, a speaker, an MP3 player, shoes, jeans, and an audio file of shitting and pained groaning. "I'm just immature enough to find this funny." he was like 68 at the time lol
He wrote the most beautiful essay about all the particulars of how and why he loves his wife (including a long section about what a great business partner she is) that I read at least once a year. I HOPE someday I can write like he did
I sent it to my husband this year on our anniversary. We didn't do unique vows at our wedding but if we had I probably would have used that line or some variant of the same sentiment.
When he died and gamers did their thing there was a really great collective response from half of the gaming sector and the rest of the world going "you shut the FUCK up and show some respect" because this dude was a legend of the pen.
Also if you go back and read his old reviews of random movies you stumble upon they're always a delight. His review of The Mummy is basically like, "This isn't a great movie by any stretch but I had so much fun I simply do not care about its flaws" which remains accurate to this day
Yeah I feel like I've seen more people than ever do an extreme fandom personality thing after getting into activism, and/or experiencing isolation during the early pandemic, which is real uncomfortable to watch
Many horror fans still hold a grudge because they felt Ebert's distaste of much of the genre's output was pearl clutching about the violence, when it was really that he felt much of it was disgustingly misogynistic (he's right).
backing this up, I’ve been compiling a list of the horror flicks he liked; for a guy who horror fans claim didn’t like horror, he sure liked a lot of them:
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https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/fanboys-2009
for those unfamiliar, it’s a retelling of the monster mash as an orgy. absolutely lowest common denominator, and it delighted him
the world won’t see his like again