Roger Ebert Hated the film

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Who cares about what he thinks?

It was what it was, so I give it 6/10.

Oh, Roger Ebert is an overstuffed cream-filled pastry. I haven't bothered to read or listen to his pompous "reviews" in years.

I haven't seen this movie yet (checked in here to get a preview), but I intend to, despite what he thinks.

I was never really a regular reader of Ebert reviews, but when I did I usually liked them. I quite happily and vehemently disagreed with his verdicts many times. But it was all good, because he usually did what a good critic is supposed to do: write a review that you can agree with even if you don't agree with the verdict. I could usually see his point, and he was descriptive enough in the text, so you had enough information to assume that you could probably like a film he didn't, or the other way around.

His review on The Limits of Control was the only time I remember that I really lost some respect for the man, though. Not because I loved the film and he hated it, but because his review was absolutely empty and read like he didn't even watch the film at all. I read it shortly after seeing the film in cinema, and I remember thinking, I don't think I've ever read a professional movie review that felt so much like it wasn't about the movie I just saw (maybe it wasn't, and he confused it with some other film he saw that day? Everything seems possible). He didn't get any of the points of the film, not even the most obvious ones, or the ones Jarmusch has publicly stated at the time of release. And all of the downsides he mentions feel like he was forcefully wanting the film to be something other than what it was. The film wasn't trying to be deep or philosophical, Roger!

But hey, everybody has a bad day sometimes, maybe he just couldn't focus =) I still like him and he did a lot of great work, may he rest in peace.

He also hated Haute Tension. His loss.