2018 Countdown With Keith Uhlich (Part 2)

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It's easy to claim art serves a purpose, but what exactly is that purpose? How do artists and critics reckon with the images, ideas, and worlds they've created—for better and worse? If art only builds a monument to itself, what value does that hold? In the second part of Peter and Keith Uhlich's look back at the year 2018 in movies, these questions come to the forefront. It's not just what art is but how it strikes us, how it is purposed (or repurposed), and how it becomes part of a dialogue. Though covering just one year of cinema, a list that expands back over a century. The big surprise: who topped their list with film and who topped it with television? Surprises abound in this invigorating discussion.

0:00–2:41 Opening
2:41–26:34 Picks for #5
26:34–41:40 Picks for #4
41:40–1:00:41 Picks for #3
1:01:20–1:03:59 Sponsorship Section
1:04:47–1:27:08 Picks for #2
1:27:08–1:30:02 Guest Picks
1:30:02–1:59:56 Picks for #1
1:59:56–2:04:39 Wrap Up 
2:05:36–2:08:35 Close / Outtake

Peter's List

1. Parts Unknown, "Hong Kong" (Asia Argento, Anthony Bourdain, and Christopher Doyle, USA / Hong Kong)
2. Personal Problems (Bill Gunn, USA, 1981-2018), The Other Side of the Wind (Orson Welles & Company, USA, 1970-2018)
3. If Beale Street Could Talk (Barry Jenkins, USA) / Something Good - Negro Kiss (Selig Polyscope / Dino Everett / Allyson Nadia Field, USA, 1898-2018)
4. 24 Frames (Abbas Kairostami, Iran)
5. Unsane (Steven Soderbergh, USA) / Leave No Trace (Debra Granick, USA)
6. The Rider (Chloe Zhao, USA)

7. Le CiNéMa Club

8. Monrovia, Indiana (Frederick Wiseman, USA) / Stranger in Paradise (Guido Hendrix, The Netherlands)

9. Amazing Grace (Aretha Franklin, USA, 1972-2018)

10. Downsizing (Alexander Payne, USA, 2017)

Keith's List
"Do Something New"
1. 24 Frames (2017, Abbas Kiarostami, with Ahmad Kiarostami)/Ready Player One (2018, Steven Spielberg)

"Size Does Matter?"

2. The X-Files, "Rm9sbG93ZXJz" (2018, d. Glen Morgan, cr. Chris Carter)
3. La Flor (2018, Mariano Llinás, with Laura Paredes, Elisa Carricajo, Pilar Gamboa, Valeria Correa)

"This Is Existentialism 101" 
4. The Terror (2018, d. Tim Mielants, Edward Berger, Sergio Mimica-Gezzan, cr. David Kajganich, Soo Hugh) 
5. The Green Fog (2017, Evan Johnson, Galen Johnson, Guy Maddin)

"…And This Is Love"
6. If Beale Street Could Talk (2018, Barry Jenkins)
7. Sense8: Amor Vincit Omnia (2018, Lana Wachowski)
8. Suspiria (2018, Luca Guadagnino)

"Dea(d)r White People"
9. Monrovia, Indiana (2018, Frederick Wiseman)
10. The Ballad of Buster Scruggs (2018, Joel and Ethan Coen)

Other Picks
Jared Case — In The Last Days of the City (Tamer El Said, Egypt)
Michael Sicinski — The Grand Bizarre (Jodie Mack, USA)
Daniel Goldhaber — Chained for Life (Aaron Schimberg, USA)

Notes and Links to the Conversation
—Follow Keith Uhlich's website and his Hollywood Reporter work
—Michael Sicinski on The Green Fog
—The Deleted Scene from Vertigo
—Carrie Rickey discussed the idea of a specific female gaze
—David Kajganich on the ending of The Terror
—Jordan Cronk's interview with La Flor director Mariano Llinás
—Watch the version of Something Good with the Beale Street score
—More about Dino Everett
—Allyson Nadia Field's Uplift Cinema
—Orphan Film Symposium
—Doreen St. Félix on If Beale Street Could Talk
—Base64 Code
—Ishmael Reed on the history of Personal Problems
—Jonathan Rosenbaum discusses The Other Side of the Wind
—Nick Pinkerton on Personal Problems
—Keith on 24 Frames
—David Sims used the Kiarostami quote here.
—TJ Miller's history of sexual assault is noted here.
—Kitchen Confidential
—In the original conversation, Keith and I discussed a bit about the allegations that came up against Asia Argento earlier in 2018. I decided to opt out of it because a number of parties involved with the story have spoken out that the narrative as originally told distorted certain key events, and the way it was discussed here did not give them full characterization. I leave it to listeners reading this to explore on their own and make their own judgements.

Theme Music: “Forward” by Northbound

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