Opposable Thumbs: How Siskel & Ebert Changed Movies Forever

For the first six years of their professional rivalry, Chicago Sun-Times film critic Roger Ebert (1942–2013) and Chicago Tribune film critic Gene Siskel (1946–99) avoided talking to each other, maintaining their distance as each worked on his celebrated column. Then, in 1975, PBS station WTTW invited both to do a pilot for a half-hour film-review show titled Opening Soon…at a Theater Near You. Over the next 24 years, the show (retitled Siskel & Ebert) became a pop culture cornerstone for film criticism. Film critic Singer (Marvel’s Spider-Man) gamely narrates the rise and sudden end of Siskel and Ebert’s program and their partnership and excitedly recounts behind-the-scenes spats, as told by former staff. Singer also playfully relates the many times Ebert and Siskel disagreed on movie reviews and adds dry humor to Siskel’s rebuttals. What began as a story about two diametrically opposed foes becomes an account of two film critics, neither of whom liked the other’s reviews, but respected each other as people.