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Dan Carlson
Los Angeles, California

I'm a twentysomething white male with ambitions to be a professional film critic and generally spend my days getting paid to watch movies and write about it. I try not to think too hard about how I want to build my life around talking about other people's creations and not mine. A compulsive reader and stubborn cineaste, I take an often contrary stance to my more fundamentalist peers and upbringing by celebrating the pursuit of the good, and the Good, in life, love, art and film. If you watched enough episodes of a few TV shows ("The Hungry and the Hunted," "The Cut Man Cometh," "The Body," "The Zeppo," "Waiting in the Wings," "Out of Gas," "April is the Cruelest Month," "20 Hours in America," "Colonial Day," "An Echolls Family Christmas," and "Look Who's Stalking," for starters), you would understand me completely, and you'd also realize that much of my worldview and philosophical insights are heavily influenced by fictional works/programs, and many of the good things I've said in my life are just a regurgitation of someone else's imaginings. I guess I was made to be a film critic.

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November 5, 2006

Sunday Recap

By Dan Carlson

• The latest reviews:

"(God's) jealousy was provoked by man’s ambition, and it’s not entirely bad that González Iñárritu is attempting to reclaim that sense of drive and scope, to build a tower high enough to make sense of the world below him. If his attempt somewhat fails, perhaps it’s enough that he tried."

"The resulting faux-documentary … is a stunning success, the kind of extreme satire that aims for the gut and skewers any and all that cross its path. It’s also, I should repeat, the funniest movie you’ll see all year."

"The energy of Flushed Away doesn’t leave a lot of room for much emotive response to the characters, as with a Pixar flick, but there’s enough to make it more than mindless entertainment; think of Chicken Run amped up a lot."

"Also along for the ride are Santa’s ex-wife and her new age suburban hippie husband, played by Judge Reinhold(!). I’m pretty sure the ex-wife and her husband have some sort of back story, revealed in either one of the two previous films, but I haven’t seen either and — unless I’m looking to induce a coma — I don’t ever plan to."

• I'm completely okay with it if any of you disagree with my opinions on "Studio 60," but since (a) I run this place, and (b) there are plenty of other places you can go on the interwebs, I'm probably going to ignore comments that attempt to limit what I do or don't write about. Also, I'd hardly call any of the "Studio 60" entries long-winded. Then again, I love DFW, so my perspective could be skewed. But I doubt it.

• In honor of craptastic horror films, I've decided to work with human remains.

• The Piv: He's everywhere.

• Because you've got the time, and you need to watch these videos:

In honor of the feature debut of Borat, I once again present the greatest Borat segment ever:

A great clip from the season premiere of "Battlestar Galactica." It might be the only time the sky over New Caprica was actually blue:

And, what the hell, a classic. This year, I'm gonna ask Santa for a blonde sex robot who lives in my brain and brings me messages from God. If anyone reading this would like to go ahead and buy me one, that'd be fine, too. I would never need another present:

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"The critic is the only independent source of information. The rest is advertising."
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Remembering speechlessly we seek the great forgotten language, the lost lane-end into heaven, a stone, a leaf, an unfound door. Where? When?

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