BY CANDLELIGHT

Paul Attanasio, the boy wonder film critic at the Washington Post (he was hired at age 24), has joined the large ranks of those who would rather write movies than write about ‘em. He quit Friday the 13th and relocated to New York.

And he told Outtakes that he didn’t pursue any screenwriting deals while still on the Post payroll.

“That’s strictly sleazeball stuff, and I swore I wouldn’t do it,” said Attanasio, now 27. “For me, it was a case of continuing to curse the darkness as a critic or trying to light a really small candle as a film maker. I just got to the point where there was no joy for me in what I was doing.”

Post editors had no comment about the search for a successor.

Attanasio had no specifics on future work but said, “Very few people in the business seem to be doing anything for love, and maybe I can do something about that.”

His last review to run in the Post (already written) will cover “Hoosiers,” due to open in Washington Feb. 27. But Attanasio added, with no small amount of sarcasm, that “the actual last review I write will be of (Sylvester) Stallone’s new arm-wrestling epic (“Over the Top”). There’s a certain fitness, a delicious commentary, about that, I think, when we talk about people not doing things for love. I am not, of course, pre-judging the movie.”