Episode #4 - Keith Uhlich (The Truth About Charlie)

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"I feel like there's all these voices out there, and I want to keep contributing my voice…I think the way film criticism survives in this uncertain landscape is by building a community. As long as you have a strong community of people – not necessarily like-minded on the same films – but people who accept that film criticism is an art that is well worth preserving and keeping around. I’m heartened by the number of different voices I see."

For a film critic who has to keep his reviews under 250 words, Time Out New York staff writer Keith Uhlich has quite a lot to say as he joins Peter for the podcast. Keith explains how he originally got the cinephile bug watching films like Popeye and Spaceballs, as well as his frustrations in making his own films at NYU. They then dive in deep to Keith's unique writing process and spar a bit over some of his more oddball opinions (a love of The Black Dahlia, anger toward Steven Soderbergh). Keith also explains his frustrations over the current state of independent LBGTQ cinema (never have the words “Fuck you, Tom Ford” been spoken with such force). Finally, the two discuss Jonathan Demme’s The Truth About Charlie, an often maligned remake of Charade that inspires both of them for its visual appreciation of Paris and its overlooked humanism.

0:00-4:50 - Opening/Act One: Establishing Shots - Remembering Tony Scott

5:05-1:40:50 - Act Two: Deep Focus - Keith Uhlich
1:41:40-2:06:18 - Act Three: Double Exposure - The Truth About Charlie (Jonathan Demme)
2:06:20-2:08:00 - Close/Outtake

Read Keith Uhlich at Time Out New York, Slant Magazine, The House of Next Door, Senses of Cinema, and Reverse Show. Also read his haiku reviews on Letterboxd.

Follow Keith on Twitter.

Highlighted Articles by Keith Uhlich

-An overview of Vincente Minnelli

-Jafar Panahi's Offside and This Is Not A Film

-Two considerations of Brian De Palma's The Black Dahlia at Slant and Reverse Shot
-De Palma's Redacted
-An overview of Brian De Palma
-Steven Soderbergh's Ocean's Twelve and Haywire
-Uhlich and Mike D'Angelo discuss Christopher Nolan's The Dark Knight Rises
-Nolan's The Dark Knight
-A Conversation with Andrew Sarris
-Uhlich and Matt Zoller Seitz discuss Quentin Tarantino's career 
-Tarantino's Inglorious Basterds
-Tom Ford's A Single Man
-Andrew Haigh's Weekend 
-An overview of Jonathan Demme
-Demme's The Truth About Charlie 

Other Writing from the Conversation

-Ignatiy Vishnevetsky's appraisal of Tony Scott (and his original piece on Scott and other 21st century directors).

-My favorite image from Scott's Deja Vu

-The VHS gag in Mel Brooks's Spaceballs

-Owen Gleiberman's review of Francis Ford Coppola's The Godfather: Part III

-Claus von Bülow

-Armond White's The Resistance 

-Godfrey Cheshire and Matt Zoller Seitz 

-Tom Noonan 
-Max Winter on the 2008 Democratic National Convention and Max Maul on the 2008 Republican National Convention
-Labuza on Nicolas Winding Refn's Drive
-Dan Callahan's book Barbara Stanwyck: The Miracle Woman
-James Harvey's Movie Love in the 50s
-Ebert Presents At the Movies with Vishnevetsky and Christie Lemire
-Labuza on Audrey Hepburn in Charade

 Notes and Corrections

-Keith describes the review of Tim Burton's Batman, though he misstates the writer of the piece, who is actually Mike McGrady. It is in the June 23rd, 1989 issue, which is not availible online.
-At one point I describe how Soderbergh moves the camera and say "as his own cinematographer" when I meant to say "as his own camera operator."
-After the conversation, we talked a bit about Lynn Shelton's Your Sister's Sister, which he had not seen and I think is a newer film that avoids the issues of gay independent cinema that he described. I wrote about the film here.

Theme Music: “Forward” by Northbound

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