Keith-Uhlich | SpoutBlog

Critics Watch: Seitz Out, Lee In

By Karina Longworth posted 1 year ago

In a podcast conversation with Keith Uhlich at The House Next Door, the group blog whose Blogger URL contains his name, Matt Zoller Seitz has announced that he’s giving up writing print criticism. This formal declaration comes two weeks after Seitz made some critical comments about the conflict between print and web criticism at the Moving Image Institute; two weeks before that, Seitz writes in the podcast’s comments, he gave notice that he was leaving his post as back-up critic for the New York Times, meaning his piece on the jazz in film series at MoMA will be his last for that publication. In the same comment, Seitz says he’ll be replaced by Nathan Lee, who intimated in last week’s Rotten Tomatoes interview that all those Saturday afternoons devoted to sex and Madame Bovary had paid off in a new position at a major publication.

The House Next Door will carry on under Keith Uhlich’s leadership. Seitz, who says he’ll continue to post on the site, is also planning on devoting the summer to making a puppet movie––and anyone who will be in Dallas in July and August who wants to get involved with production is invited to send him an email through the site. I’ve excerpted a portion of the transcription of the podcast, in which Seitz succinctly explains his decision to move on from the print world, after the jump.

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Indies

The Big Sleep: BlogNosh 04/21/08

By Karina Longworth posted 1 year ago

At The House Next Door, Keith Uhlich has a lengthy wrap-up of the Sarasota Film Festival, which he begins by contemplating the idea of falling asleep in movies. I, unfortunately, have been known to suffer from mid-festival narcolepsy––in fact, I dozed off whilst sitting next to Keith in two separate Sarasota screenings. Keith doesn’t have this problem, and he explains why: “For me, movies approximate a dream state. The basic act of watching them is invigorating, my attention focused to a finely honed point.“
What’s this? The Sex and the City movie is no longer screening at Cannes? But why? Jeff Wells has a few ideas, natch: “My guess is that the Warner Bros. handlers simply decided against the Cannes option because they didn’t want to endure a DaVinci Code-like pummeling by festival correspondents and figured London would offer more of a slurpy kiss-ass reception.”
Finally, a tossed-off bit of film criticism from Ryan Adams, embedded deep in a lengthy blog post about his sobriety: “[M]en should just wish they were shoes, but that is another story and and if you have noticed, Q.Taratino has been trying to tell it over a lot of stray bullets for quite some time…” Sic, of course.

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Hollywood

FilmCouch #52

By Paul Moore posted 1 year ago

Joe Swanberg (Hannah Takes the Stairs) and Ronald Bronstein (Frownland) talk about turning private detective movie convention on its ear with Butterknife, their new webseries presented on spout.com January 28.

Aaron Hillis and Keith Uhlich argue–REALLY argue–over the critical acclaim gay critics gave to I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry. I really don’t know what to make of their face-off, but it reveals staunchly different ways that gay and straight people watch a gay themed movie, especially one starring Adam Sandler.

*Sign up for an email reminder when Butterknife premiers at butterknife.spout.com