the photo

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the info

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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Main

Reviews Archives

April 25, 2008

April 2008

By Dan Carlson

"John Adams"
[Willamette Week]

Priceless

The Visitor

Forgetting Sarah Marshall

Baby Mama

March 28, 2008

March 2008

By Dan Carlson

L.A. Confidential

"Quarterlife"
[Willamette Week]

10,000 BC

Funny Games

Drillbit Taylor

"The West Wing," Season Two

21

February 15, 2008

February 2008

By Dan Carlson

Strange Wilderness

In Bruges

Jumper

January 28, 2008

January 2008

By Dan Carlson

Clear Eyes, Empty Sets
[Willamette Week]

There Will Be Blood

Strike One
[Willamette Week]

Cloverfield

Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid

Teeth

The Long and Winding "Road Rules"
[Willamette Week]

December 16, 2007

December 2007

By Dan Carlson

Juno

Atonement

Showdown on Sci Fi
[Willamette Week]

Youth Without Youth

November 25, 2007

November 2007

By Dan Carlson

American Gangster

No Country for Old Men

Margot at the Wedding

Strike While the TV Is Cold
[Willamette Week]

October 29, 2007

October 2007

By Dan Carlson

Eight Films That Shouldn't Have Won Best Picture

TV Roulette
[Willamette Week]

The Darjeeling Limited

Michael Clayton

Lars and the Real Girl

"Pushing Daisies"
[Willamette Week]

Rendition

Rails & Ties

"The Office"
[Willamette Week]

September 28, 2007

September 2007

By Dan Carlson

3:10 to Yuma

"My Boys"
[Willamette Week]

Across the Universe

The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford

The Kingdom

August 27, 2007

August 2007

By Dan Carlson

"Mad Men"
[Willamette Week]

Hot Rod

Stardust

"Cathouse"
[Willamette Week]

Superbad

The Nanny Diaries

Sunset Blvd.

"The Pickup Artist"
[Willamette Week]

July 20, 2007

July 2007

By Dan Carlson

Rescue Dawn

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix

"Studio 60": What Kind of Show Has it Been?
[Willamette Week]

Talk to Me

June 29, 2007

June 2007

By Dan Carlson

Day Watch

Fido

Evan Almighty

Live Free or Die Hard

May 11, 2007

May 2007

By Dan Carlson

Spider-Man 3

Georgia Rule

Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End

April 27, 2007

April 2007

By Dan Carlson

Grindhouse

Perfect Stranger

Hot Fuzz

The TV Set

Next

March 17, 2007

March 2007

By Dan Carlson

Starter for 10

300

I Think I Love My Wife

Reign Over Me

The Lookout


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February 28, 2007

February 2007

By Dan Carlson

Hannibal Rising

Ghost Rider

The Man Who Wasn't There: A Salute to Character Actors

Reno 911!: Miami

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January 27, 2007

January 2007

By Dan Carlson

PopMatters' Best TV of 2006

[link goes to PopMatters.com]

The Best Films of 2006

The Best Documentaries of 2006

The Dead Girl

Smokin' Aces

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December 26, 2006

December 2006

By Dan Carlson

The Nativity Story

Unaccompanied Minors

The Good German

The Good Shepherd

Children of Men

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November 23, 2006

November 2006

By Dan Carlson

Babel

Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan

Harsh Times

Casino Royale

Shut Up & Sing

The Fountain

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October 21, 2006

October 2006

By Dan Carlson

The Departed

Films About Texas

Little Children

The Prestige

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October 1, 2006

September 2006

By Dan Carlson

Idiocracy

Hollywoodland

This Film Is Not Yet Rated

All the King's Men

Feast

A Guide to Recognizing Your Saints

Jesus Camp

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August 29, 2006

August 2006

By Dan Carlson

Little Miss Sunshine

Zoom

The Illusionist

Beerfest

The Quiet

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July 26, 2006

July 2006

By Dan Carlson

The Oh in Ohio

"Nightmares & Dreamscapes"

[link goes to PopMatters.com]

Lady in the Water

A look at Rushmore

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June 28, 2006

June 2006

By Dan Carlson

District B13

Cars

Nacho Libre

Wordplay

Superman Returns

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May 30, 2006

May 2006

By Dan Carlson

The 10 Worst Blockbusters of All Time

The Notorious Bettie Page

The Proposition

An Inconvenient Truth

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April 29, 2006

April 2006

By Dan Carlson

Brick

Lucky Number Slevin

Friends With Money

"Patton Oswalt: No Reason to Complain"

[link goes to PopMatters.com]

Hard Candy

Kinky Boots

"Dave Attell's Insomniac Tour"

[link goes to PopMatters.com]

The Sentinel

Stick It

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March 7, 2006

March 2006

By Dan Carlson

Dave Chappelle's Block Party

The Libertine

"The Apprentice"

[link goes to PopMatters.com]

Ask the Dust

Thank You For Smoking

Inside Man

Slither

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February 22, 2006

February 2006

By Dan Carlson

Something New

A Good Woman

Firewall

London

Night Watch

Winter Passing

Dirty

Unknown White Male

--------

January 7, 2006

January 2006

By Dan Carlson

The best and worst of 2005

The Matador

The New World

End of the Spear

Why We Fight

Annapolis

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December 3, 2005

December 2005

By Dan Carlson

Syriana

Memoirs of a Geisha

King Kong

Brokeback Mountain

[links back to Slowly Going Bald]

The Producers

Munich

--------

November 5, 2005

November 2005

By Dan Carlson

Chicken Little

Jarhead

[links back to Slowly Going Bald]

Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire

Yours, Mine & Ours

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October 9, 2005

October 2005

By Dan Carlson

Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit

Good Night, and Good Luck

The Fog

North Country

The Legend of Zorro

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September 11, 2005

September 2005

By Dan Carlson

Everything Is Illuminated

A History of Violence

Serenity

--------

August 11, 2005

August 2005

By Dan Carlson

The Aristocrats

The Great Raid

Pretty Persuasion

Valiant

Undiscovered

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July 11, 2005

July 2005

By Dan Carlson

Yes

War of the Worlds

[links back to Slowly Going Bald]

Murderball

March of the Penguins

Hustle & Flow

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June 11, 2005

June 2005

By Dan Carlson

Essay on Ocean's 12 and John Barth

[link goes to www.metaphilm.com]

Batman Begins

[links back to Slowly Going Bald]

Rize

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May 11, 2005

May 2005

By Dan Carlson

CD Review: Hacienda Brothers, Hacienda Brothers

[link goes to AmericanaRoots.com]

Star Wars: Episode III—Revenge of the Sith

[links back to Slowly Going Bald]

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April 11, 2005

April 2005

By Dan Carlson

Sin City

[links back to Slowly Going Bald]

Essay about editing/censorship

[links back to Slowly Going Bald]

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March 7, 2005

March 2005

By Dan Carlson

The Jacket

[links back to Slowly Going Bald]

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February 7, 2005

February 2005

By Dan Carlson

Million Dollar Baby

[links back to Slowly Going Bald]

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January 7, 2005

January 2005

By Dan Carlson

In Good Company

[links back to Slowly Going Bald]

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December 7, 2004

December 2004

By Dan Carlson

The Life Aquatic With Steve Zissou

[links back to Slowly Going Bald]

Ocean's 12

[links back to Slowly Going Bald]

Closer

[links back to Slowly Going Bald]

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November 7, 2004

November 2004

By Dan Carlson

Sideways

[links back to Slowly Going Bald]

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the post

Questions? Comments? Complaints?

Drop 'em in the mailbag.

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The Lines

The Quotes

"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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the wisdom

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

There is a time in the lives of most writers when they are vulnerable, when the vivid dreams and ambitions of childhood seem to pale in the harsh sunlight of what we call the real world. In short, there's a time when things can go either way.
— Stephen King

Los Angeles, give me some of you! Los Angeles come to me the way I came to you, my feet over your streets, you pretty town I loved you so much, you sad flower in the sand, you pretty town.
Ask the Dust, John Fante