A Leave of Presence: How Roger Ebert Changed How I Think About Fiction

Roger Ebert was on my television for my entire childhood, then on my computer screen for most of my adulthood. And for the last five years of his life, through his blog, he was in my head. He forever changed how I watch movies and how I think about fiction. And if I'm being honest, he changed how I think about the world.

I want to tell you about him, because he deserves it, and because this seems like the right place.

Much More Than Thumbs Up or Thumbs Down

Most people knew Ebert from the half-hour movie review show, Siskel and Ebert, later Ebert and Roeper. It was two guys in a movie theater, arguing over a new release and giving it a thumbs up or a thumbs down. It was a simple format, but the thinking behind it was anything but.

Ebert approached every film with a question that seems obvious until you realize almost nobody else asks it: Does this movie succeed at what it's trying to do, for the audience it's trying to reach? He reviewed a dumb comedy on its merits as a dumb comedy. He reviewed a prestige drama on its merits as a prestige drama. He didn't punish a horror film for failing to be Bergman, and he didn't let a Bergman film coast on its reputation if the execution was weak. That was why he was able to give slasher movies like I Know What You Did Last Summer a thumbs up, even though he famously didn't like slashers.

This is, of course, basic intellectual honesty, but that bare minimum standard requires something most critics lack, especially the modern iteration of internet critics. He was willing to meet an audience where they are without condescending to them. And he wasn't willing to sway his review based on how well his opinion would be received. Ebert could write a four-star review of a slasher film and a zero-star review of an Oscar nominee in the same week, and people worldwide trusted both verdicts because they understood the framework.

Ebert was the only verdict I needed. In the days of Netflix DVD delivery, every Tuesday I would read Roger's new reviews. For everything he said was good (and it sounded like something I would enjoy), I added it to my Netflix queue. When the film was released on DVD, I could expect it in my mailbox within a week. That's how I saw foreign films like Jet Li's Hero and multiple K-horror movies that I otherwise would never have heard of.

His framework rewired how I evaluate fiction and it's been a big part of how I approach the written word as well. When I sit down with a client's manuscript, I'm asking the Ebert question before anything else. What is this story trying to do? Who is it for? Does it deliver? Everything else is secondary. If you get that question wrong, you can have the most beautiful prose in the world and your book will still fail.

The Art of the Takedown

Before I was the nonsense-free editor, Ebert was the critic who never held back. Unlike the so-called movie critics we have today, he didn't blunt his criticism out of fear of losing access.