Life Itself opens in Toronto on Friday, and you’ll be seeing me write a lot of words in the direction of Roger Ebert.  How could I not?

To start with, here’s a NOW Top 5 list of movies Roger championed to the public — and though I won’t go so far as to say these films wouldn’t have found their audiences eventually, Roger certainly made it a lot easier.

As I said on Twitter last night, you’ll probably be able to think of five other movies that are at least as deserving of a spot on this list, and you’d be right; Roger Ebert helped out hundreds of movies in this fashion, simply by doing his job with enthusiasm, intelligence and style. The world is poorer without him writing  about it.

Anyway, enjoy the piece. And if you need something to do tonight, I’ll be down at Harbourfront to introduce Bend It Like Beckham at 9 pm. May or may not have a special guest. It’s still in flux.