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Dan Carlson
Houston, Texas

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. 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 certain TV shows — for starters, "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," "Look Who's Stalking," "The Garage Door," "Charlie Gets Crippled," "Wind Sprints," and "Corner Boys" — 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, or at any rate a heartfelt attempt to interpret them. I guess I was made to be a film critic.

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« December 2008 |Main| In Which I Display A Surprising Strength Of Conviction About The Plotting And Structure Of A Film Starring Muppets »

December 26, 2008

Review: The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

By Dan Carlson

Kind of a letdown.

Click here for the review.

UPDATE: As a dog returns to its vomit, so too can irascible commenters be counted on to deliver the crazy goods. Today's dumb comment comes from "danielle," who asks in the thread of my review, "do you guys like ANYTHING? i mean, really. or rather, do you like anything that isn't some indie filled with has-been actors or newbies?" (All capitalizations and questionable phrasings are obviously sic.)

But the answer is: Yes. Of course. This has been a relatively weak year for film, and though one of my favorites was indeed an indie filled with a fantastic actor that uninformed people might refer to as a "has-been," I've also enjoyed quite a few mainstream flicks. I can only assume that "danielle" is a new reader who hasn't had time to realize this, or that on the given weekends I gave glowing reviews to major Hollywood fare, her head was lodged too firmly inside her buttocks to prevent her from reading the reviews.

In any case, here once again are links to movies I loved this year:

Forgetting Sarah Marshall
The Visitor
WALL-E
The Dark Knight
Slumdog Millionaire
Frost/Nixon

QED.

Comments: 4

Kevin Longrie

If I had any beef with Pajiba, it wouldn't be this. Also, a lot of times, though not exactly the case with this review, I think people don't understand the idea of subtle praise. Like, if you're not falling all over yourself trying to explain how good it is, you didn't like it. I agree, she's probably a new reader, or a dumb one. Great review, although, as I will be seeing the film soon, I hope you're wrong. Keep up the good, honest work and don't worry about a quota of positive or negative reviews.

Dec 27, 2008 2:16 AM

ryan English

I liked it prolly a little more than you did, but your observation is spot on. I thought the technical was well done and not focused on too much. I thought it borrowed from Gump quite a bit including the "look, we're right next to history happening" moments. But I really liked the juxtaposition of humor and pensiveness. I thought that was more honest - life rarely times it jokes well, nor its moments of weight. They mingle into a weighty emotional thing.
I felt connected to the characters, especially Benjamin, having the perfect union of able body and tenured wisdom, yet disconnected from the world and relationships to see it fulfilled.

Plus I had seen Eagle Eye at the $1 the night before, so maybe I was hungry for good :)

Dec 27, 2008 9:52 PM

annie

Forgetting Sarah Marshall? Really? I don't get it. i mean, I GET it, I just don't get it. Please elaborate/justify your love for it in one sentence...:-)

I thought In Bruges was tops this year. And I have heard nothing but GLOWING reviews of Slumdog Millionaire and the Wrestler.

Jan 10, 2009 12:17 AM

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Mar 3, 2009 12:24 AM

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Random Quotes

Words of Wisdom

"The critic is the only independent source of information. The rest is advertising."
— Pauline Kael

"Film lovers are sick people."
— Francois Truffaut

"I hope I strike a blow for chubby bald men everywhere. I hope they rise like an army."
— Paul Giamatti, quoted in the Los Angeles Times, 12/14/04

"Let others praise ancient times, I am glad I was born in these."
— Ovid

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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?

O lost, and by the wind grieved, ghost, come back again.
— Look Homeward, Angel, Thomas Wolfe

Conservatives are not necessarily stupid, but most stupid people are conservatives.
— John Stuart Mill

We are all under the same mental calamity; we have all forgotten our names. We have all forgotten what we really are. All that we call common sense and rationality and practicality and positivism only means that for certain dead levels of our life we forget that we have forgotten. All that we call spirit and art and ecstasy only means that for one awful instant we remember that we forget.
— G.K. Chesterton

We were, for the briefest of moments, something greater than the sum of our uncertain parts; we were youth itself, in all its painful glory and sharp joy.
— Me, Fall 2003

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— Stephen King

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— Ask the Dust, John Fante