This month, we’re paying tribute to an artist and a movie beloved by our site’s founder, the great and dearly missed Roger Ebert. If not for Roger’s love of Alex Proyas and “Dark City,” I might never have given this incredible visual stylist and marvelously ornery iconoclast a second glance. Still, our patron turned me into a lifelong fan and believer. Even his most shameless blockbusters (“Gods of Egypt” especially) sit very near to my heart, but it’s his ’90s work that has aged most splendidly. Ebert likened Proyas to early Ridley Scott, and it’s certainly true the two artists were driven to create the most lasting and meticulous images of the genre’s past and future.
“Dark City” has found an audience in the years since its box office failure, but Proyas has yet to have a moment since its fall from grace. I’d like to give him one now as we enter the darkness of fall and winter. Let’s leave a light on. For him. And for Roger Ebert.
