OPPOSABLE THUMBS

How “two schlubby film critics from Chicago” rose to unlikely fame.

According to film critic Singer, author of Marvel's Spider-Man: From Amazing to Spectacular: The Definitive Comic Art Collection, Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert “had chemistry—the kind that causes glycerol to explode when it’s mixed with nitric and sulfuric acid.” The author rides this hyperbole throughout this diverting yet overlong book, which begins with the critics’ inauspicious pilot at WTTW, Chicago’s PBS affiliate, in 1975, and ends with an assessment of their legacy. The pair were famously in conflict with each other both on screen and off, and Singer reels off countless anecdotes documenting their bickering—what they should eat for lunch, who had more lines in a Saturday Night Live skit, who got to sit next to the host during one of their many talk-show appearances, etc.—to the point that they begin to feel like padding. Interspersed are insights into the design of their iconic balcony set, their journey from PBS to syndication and the contractual disputes behind their show’s evolution, and how the two print journalists adapted their reviews for TV. It’s an unashamedly admiring treatment, with analysis running to declarations such as, “Surrounded by phony chumminess, they cut through the bullshit with unflinching honesty” and “Now…they are still the most famous film critics on the planet.” (Singer acknowledges a professional relationship with Ebert.) The author’s fulsome praise aside, there’s no questioning that Siskel and Ebert were a cultural phenomenon, and while it’s debatable that they “invented an entirely new kind of film criticism,” they certainly had an impact. Since both critics were dead at the writing of this book, Singer relies on copious previously published accounts—and YouTube–archived episodes of their shows—for their voices. Interviews with both men’s widows and with former production staff help flesh out the history.

Readers who recall Siskel and Ebert will be delighted by this opportunity to reminisce.