Nightcap 9/14/14 Cats, positive reviews,short pieces, Help REEL get financed, and Randi's links

We have six cats. I should know better then to give you cat videos but the cats have insisted and said they would stop stealing my clothes and waking me up at 3am if I did.
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I know I piss some of you off with the fact that I’m so positive about some of the films I review. I know the fact that most of the reviews here are positive make some of you crazy. Largely the ones who are getting crazy are coming in for our festival or new release coverage and don’t realize that the website was set up to highlight good films. I can’t help if you don’t like the fact that we try to point out good films, that’s what we do, the festival and new release stuff is ultimately extra…

But you have to realize that a lot of work goes into even getting the few good films we write up. I can’t speak for anyone else but I go through a lot of movies that never make Unseen. Last weekend for example I went through at least 30 films. I watched Boyhood, four of Sinister Cinema’s Drive in Double features, two other thrillers from Sinister plus I went through a stack of 20 DVDs that I had picked up in dump bins. The way I went through the dump bin films was to start them and watch it until I had a feeling that the film just wasn’t going anywhere then I popped the DVD out and put in the next one. I did not make it through most of the dump films and I don’t think any of them, well maybe one…or two… will ever get mentioned here (one is a so bad it’s going into our Thanksgiving turkey wrap up). Basically I saw about 30 films and 5 are going to end up reported on.

The fact I’m saying I saw 30 films this weekend may seem like a lot, and on most levels it is, but at the same time I’m one of those psychos who is constantly watching films, with the exception being when I pause for friends or to watch sports. While I’m reporting on all the good films I’ve seen, what I’m not doing is telling you about the even bigger pile of crap that I waded through to find the good stuff.
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Somewhere with all this talk of good films and bad films I find that I have to apologize for what has been the shortening of my pieces. Somewhere over the last year my pieces have been shortening up. Part of it has been due to the fact that I was raiding some of my pieces from other places to fill the film of the day slots, but some of it has been due to my simply writing shorter pieces.

Most of the short pieces of recent vintage have been as part of our coverage of festivals and new releases and are the result of seeing too much and just trying to say what I have to say before I move on to the next thing. That’s not entirely fair to some of the films which could have benefited from longer discussions, but at the same time I don’t think I would say that any of the short pieces were too short. Everyone that I read over recently said what I wanted it to. The added discussion would have been nice but wasn’t necessary.

Call it economy of words.

Truthfully I want to write longer pieces, but what I write is in reaction to a film. I can’t spew needlessly. I need to find a way to say something. And I post what I have to say. It’s just lately what I have to say doesn’t seem to be very wordy. I’m not going to worry until I start to post reviews that simply say “it’s Okay”. Besides there are a couple reviews coming up, including one vitriolic piece that make up for recent short comings.
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Tomorrow we officially start with press screenings for the New York Film Festival. I have no idea how many films we'll see, but we've got at least a bakers dozen already cued and ready to go. We've got tickets for another 15 public screenings plus plans to see a ton of the press screenings so we should have you covered for most of the films...

...but I'm getting a head of myself by a week or two. Keep reading because we'll have a ton of stuff on the festival coming.
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Time is running down on REEL. Please give so the film will be finished and Alec won't feel me to the pirhanas in the Central Park Zoo... For more information go to the Kickstarter page.
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And Now Randi's Links
Films stuck in development hell
What Boyhood forgets about the magic of childhood
Awesome Hotels
From Rupert Pupkin Speaks: a great list of under appreciated action films
Documentary on Dungeons and Dragons turns into a legal battle

(This week’s films have been changed up-because of a heavy influx of new releases I’ve rescheduled what I had scheduled and instead I’m going for a week of new releases and perhaps something special with Terry Gilliam. Next weekend I have some silent serials scheduled before we ease into our coverage of the New York Film Festival which begins the on the 26th.)