Nightcap 9/7/14 Mort Shuman sings Brel, a confession, Nick Carter, Joan Rivers, John Waters and links

You are so wrong about the film that if you don't go back and reconsider your review you should immediately stop calling yourself a critic-one of my fans unhappy about a negative review

I have a confession to make- over the last couple of weeks I’ve been going back and looking at all the films we’ve covered. I was just running through all of the titles to see how many of the films I remember and to make sure we’re not unintentionally duplicating anything. Sadly I’m finding that the vast majority of the new releases and festival stuff over the last year or two has made no impression on me. Looking at some of the titles I had no idea what the film was. I had to jump in and read my review before I had that “ah ha” moment.

What’s worse in reading the reviews I’m finding that the majority of the stuff I don’t remember would never have made Unseen were sticking to the Unseen Films mandate of uncovering good films. If I wasn’t covering a festival or a new release I never would have written up a good number of the films.

That’s not a good sign- it’s so not a good sign I’m going to have to sit and ponder what the course of Unseen is going to be since the point of the site is, or was, to showcase good films. I know by covering the films we’re being a place of record for the films which is equally important but is that what Unseen is?

I don’t know and sometime after the next festival season and busy fall I’ll have to sit down with my guys and gals to ponder it.

If you have thoughts-should we just focus on the good stuff or should we continue with across the board festival/small scale new release coverage let me know.
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I did something stupid on this past Thursday. I reran my IMDB review of Dinner for Adele and I talked about detective Nick Carter as if the majority of you had any idea who Carter is. I’m guessing most of you don’t.

The short version of the story- Nick Carter was a character created in the late 19th pulp press. He became so popular in some circles that he was refered to as the American Sherlock Holmes. As times changed so did Carter with with him becoming slightly hard boiled. There were radio shows, movies and TV appearances. His son Chick was spun off into his own series and his own movie serial.

The character has faded from popular view her in America, however it doesn’t mean the character isn’t still around, he is, though largely in reprints.
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Alec's film REEL is just about half way funded with 20 days left. If you haven't given consider doing so. All the details can be found at the Kickstarter page.
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I don’t know what to say about the passing of Joan Rivers. What can you say about a woman who’s death at 81 was completely unexpected? I mean did anyone actually think she would ever die? Apparently she didn’t either as her future plans showed. I think the best thing I can say is thanks for the laughs-and we forgive you for Rabbit Test.
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As most of you know Lincoln Center is doing a retrospective of all of the films of John Waters. I love Waters and his films and I debated doing something on the series but about the time I decided to sit down and do it I began to hear of sell outs and realized the series didn’t need my help- besides While I think his films are a great, Waters himself is the real attraction and what you want to do is sit down with him and let talk for several hours about everything
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And as always we end with Randi's collection of links

Notes on Lorcan Finnegan's Foxes
Guardians of the Galaxy Q&A
Oh Dear What A Pity Never Mind
Hemingway forgotten?
Found:Jule Feiffer animation
King Kong  concept art
Rachel Elkind talks about Kubrick scores
Osamu Tezuka the God of manga
Why the summer boxoffice could have been worse

(This week more random film mixed with new releases)