It might seem vaguely reductive to note that, as Matt Zoller Seitz so wonderfully put it in his eulogy, the late Roger Ebert served as a “gateway drug” for cinephiles – to suggest his work was in anyway basic, simplistic, or not worthy of a higher literary plain beyond that gateway. However, breaking down the perceived barrier between accessible and intelligent critical discourse was such an important part of what Ebert did, and his ultimate impact on the world of entertainment criticism, that such a description is wholly appropriate.

Ebert was the guy who helped champion little movies like Hoop Dreams and Monster on national television. He dissected the best films of the 1990s with Martin Scorsese, and in a manner that was as entertaining as it was informative. And he took full advantage of his web presence to lend further opportunities to young, up-and-coming writers in whom he saw potential.

In short, he felt like America’s critic-next-door in every sense, and the extent to which he used that position to popularize mainstream critical discourse can’t be overstated. At the Movies brought fairly serious discussion about film into ordinary households every week. More importantly though, Ebert and Gene Siskel (and later, Richard Roeper) didn’t come across as self-important or elitist – they were just regular guys who happened to know a lot about film, and loved discussing it, as well as (most memorably) arguing about it.

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