The realization that I would never again read a new Ebert review was nothing short of alarming. The man is more or less single-handedly responsible for my interest in film criticism. During my teenage years, I would quickly follow each movie I watched with a visit to Ebert’s website to read his review. Sure, I read reviews by other critics, but my relationship with Ebert was on a different level. There was something about the deeply personal, candid, unpretentious way that the famed Chicago Sun-Times critic expressed his views which really resonated with me. His work had a conversational quality; a plainspoken sincerity which made him stand apart from the crowd. He marched to the beat of his own drum regardless of where critical consensus drifted, and permitted his emotions to drive his reviews to an extent that few other critics seemed comfortable with.
Clark’s tribute to Roger Ebert.