OPPOSABLE THUMBS

5 stars

From 1975 to early 1999 - the period in which Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert did their wildly successful thumbs up or down thing on TV, our family of four was up and running, with our younger (and final) kid entering her seventh year. We went to the movies with some frequency - back then, a box of popcorn didn't cost as much as a new car - but we also spent many hours with our noses glued to the TV set in the living room (one of those big old cathode-ray sets, of course). We loved watching the sometimes volatile dynamics between the two movie critics, which often helped us decide whether or not to spend our hard-earned money at at the theater. So I looked forward to the enlightenment this book promised to bring.

And the author delivered; the writing was interesting even during parts that easily could have turned boring, and I learned much more about the complicated relationship between the two rival newspaper columnists as well as the evolution of their popular TV show from a behind-the-scenes perspective. Other chapters serve as biographies of their early and pre-TV lives.

Not surprisingly, much is made of the never-ending tension between the two, both personally and professionally; but in the end, it was what propelled the somewhat unwilling team to the stardom they enjoyed for 23 years until Siskel's death in early 1999. Ebert continued for a time until he, too, passed away. So what would they be doing if both were still alive today? "Whatever projects they did separately, Gene and Roger would have remained Siskel and Ebert as long as they lived: two individuals who were better at arguing about movies together than anyone else in history," the author posits. 

At the end of the book is a list of 25 films - amid hundreds of films they reviewed over their years together - that earned a thumbs-up from both critics (that in and of itself may be worth the price of admission). All in all, this is an informative, enjoyable book and I thank the publisher, via NetGalley, for the opportunity to read and review a pre-release copy.A thumbs-up from me!

Opposable Thumbs by Matt Singer (G.P. Putnam's Sons, October 2024); 352 pp.