Kyle Counts

Biography:

A Detroit native, Kyle Counts has been the film critic for the San Diego-based Gay & Lesbian Times for three years. He has been writing about movies since the age of 19, when he was chosen (along with two others) out of 50 applicants to be a film critic for alma mater University of Michigan's Michigan Daily. (His editor was writer Neal Gabler, future author of several books, including The Jews Who Invented Hollywood; Gabler can also be seen as an interview subject in the documentary The Last Days of Chasens, co-directed by Shari Springer Berman and Robert Pulcini, who went on to make American Splendor.) Kyle was a staff writer for the two top-selling genre publications, Cinefantastique and Starlog (to which he contributed for 13 years and counting). In the late '80s he held concurrent posts as second-string film critic for the trade paper the Hollywood Reporter and staff critic for Movieline magazine (before Stephen Farber became sole critic). He is an animation devotee and has written numerous articles about animated films for CFQ and Starlog. He is also author of CFQ's restrospective of Alfred Hitchock's The Birds (published shortly after Hitchcock's death--the presses were held so he could write Hitch's obit), referenced in several books about Hitchcock, including Donald Spoto's The Dark Side of Genius and Michael Haley's The Alfred Hitchcock Album. In the early '90s Kyle was head researcher for the twin-DVD project Clint Eastwood (who has a son named Kyle, it turns out), an in-depth look at Clint Eastwood's life and career. (His signed Unforgiven poster proudly sits on his living room wall.) His first published piece was in the now-defunct Canadian film magazine Take One, which featured his analysis of actress Doris Day (the cover story that issue) titled "America's Favorite Misunderstood Commodity"; he is currently working with Washington Post TV columnist Tom Shales to get Day a Lifetime Achievement Award Oscar from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences. He is the 2004 president of the San Diego Film Critics Society and served as secretary for the year 2002.

Favorites:

The Birds (basically anything by Hitchcock), Amelie, The Princess and the Warrior, Road to Perdition, Mildred Pierce, Dark Victory, Some Like It Hot (most of Billy Wilder's stuff, in fact), and too many other movies to mention.

Publications:

Gay & Lesbian Times

Critics' Group:

San Diego Film Critics Society