The Age of Movies: Selected Writings of Roger Ebert

The Age of Movies collects essential film criticism and essays by Roger Ebert, spanning his forty-plus year career as America's most prominent movie reviewer. The curated selections showcase Ebert's writing on landmark films from the 1960s through the 2000s, ranging from Hollywood blockbusters to foreign art house cinema. Beyond standard reviews, the book includes Ebert's interviews with directors and actors, longer analytical pieces about filmmaking trends, and personal essays about his life in cinema. His coverage encompasses breakthrough works by Martin Scorsese, Werner Herzog, and other major directors, alongside pieces about genre films, B-movies, and overlooked gems. Ebert's straightforward writing style and clear-eyed assessments demonstrate why he connected with both mainstream moviegoers and serious film scholars. His reviews focus on how movies work emotionally and technically, revealing his deep knowledge of film history while remaining accessible to general readers. The collected works paint a portrait of American film culture across four decades while highlighting Ebert's belief in cinema's power to generate empathy and understanding between people. His writing celebrates movies as an art form that can entertain while exploring complex human truths.

Readers appreciate Ebert's accessible writing style and ability to analyze films without pretension. Many note his talent for connecting movies to broader cultural and social themes. Multiple reviews mention the book provides a comprehensive look at his work across different decades and genres. Readers liked: - Clear explanations of technical filmmaking aspects - Personal anecdotes about meeting directors/actors - In-depth analysis of lesser-known films - Balance of positive and negative reviews Common criticisms: - Some reviews feel dated - Occasional repetition between articles - Limited coverage of certain decades/genres - Missing some of his most famous reviews Ratings: Goodreads: 4.2/5 (429 ratings) Amazon: 4.6/5 (89 ratings) As one Goodreads reviewer noted: "Ebert writes about movies the way your smartest friend would talk about them - thoughtful but conversational." Several Amazon reviewers mentioned wanting more contemporary reviews from his later career.

The Portable Film Critic by Pauline Kael This collection presents decades of film criticism from The New Yorker's chief film critic who shaped cinema discourse through her sharp observations and cultural context.

Better Living Through Criticism by A. O. Scott The New York Times film critic examines the purpose and practice of criticism through essays that connect cinema, art, and culture.

For Keeps: 30 Years at the Movies by Pauline Kael These selected reviews and essays span three decades of American film history, capturing the evolution of cinema through one critic's lens.

American Movie Critics by Phillip Lopate This anthology traces the development of American film criticism through writings from the silent era to the digital age.

When Movies Mattered by Dave Kehr The collected reviews from the Chicago Tribune and Chicago Reader present a chronicle of cinema during the transformative period of the 1970s and 1980s.

🎬 Roger Ebert was the first film critic to win the Pulitzer Prize for Criticism (1975) and remains one of only three film critics to have received this honor. 📝 Throughout his career, Ebert reviewed more than 200 films per year, ultimately publishing more than 7,000 reviews before his death in 2013. 🌟 The book includes Ebert's famous review of "Beyond the Valley of the Dolls," a film he actually wrote the screenplay for - making him both critic and creator. 🎯 Ebert coined the term "Thumbs Up" as a film rating system with Gene Siskel on their TV show, which became so popular that they had to trademark the phrase. 📚 Many reviews in this collection come from his work at the Chicago Sun-Times, where he began as a film critic in 1967 and continued writing until his death - making him the longest-serving film critic at a major newspaper in the United States.