A+E: All the Arts + Entertainment You Can Eat

The One-Minute Critic

We're not creative enough to make this up. Fan-Tan is a new novel by Marlon Brando and movie director Donald Cammell about pirates in the China Seas, set in 1927, with a middle-aged, "Brando-esque" sea captain who is nicknamed Annie. It also involves a beautiful woman gangster, and according to Publishers Weekly, "a typhoon, a double-cross, a scorching sex scene, hand-to-hand combat and a mad break for freedom." The book will "delight readers who love movies, Marlon Brando, sea stories, Chinese pirates or adventure tales." We just can't get past a "scorching sex scene" involving a 51-year-old man with a woman's name who's presumably the size of a frigate.




Martin Stein









Silent Night


The Vegas club scene might soon be getting a whole lot quieter if Amsterdam is any indication. CNN recently reported a new trend in the Netherlands—silent discos. Clubbers are being handed wireless headphones and told to tune into a restricted radio frequency where they can pick up the DJ's music. Nico "No DJ" Okkerse and Michael "DJ Od" Minten are the guys behind 433fm.com. They claim the music is even more intense and crystal-clear, and each set of headphones comes with its own volume, bass and treble controls. Residential neighbors of nightclubs around the world are thankful.




Martin Stein









LOCAL CD



Stone


Zodiac (2.5 stars)


On his website,
www.stonesmusic.com, Stone describes neo-soul as a genre that melds jazz, R&B and hip-hop, has "deep lyrical content" and moves "the soul." Ironically, in various parts, his CD is the antithesis of this, lacking some of the emotional resonance of, say, a Musiq Soulchild. Hampering this is a voice that, though capably rangy, hopscotches from Bilal-esqe to Babyface-ish. Which isn't to say that this is a bad effort. "Girl, It's Alright" is a perky, feel-goody love tune that accomplishes its I-love-you-girl goal with a stripped-down beat and dressed-down lyrics. If he becomes more comfortable in voice and more discerning in his music, Stone might be able to open ears to what Vegas neo-soul artists have to say.




Damon Hodge









DVDs



Garbo: The Signature Collection (NR) (5 stars)


$99.92


If only today's crop of young celebrities were as committed to their privacy as Greta Garbo, the great Swedish actress who once said she just wanted to be alone, and actually meant it. To mark the 100th anniversary of her birth, Warners is releasing Anna Christie, Mata Hari, Grand Hotel, Queen Christina, Anna Karenina, Camille and Ninotchka, along with two discs of silent features and a documentary on her life. The titles are among the most enjoyable and enduring in cinema's history and the restorations are superb. Even at $99, it's a bargain.



The Lina Wertmuller Collection (R) (4 stars)


$99.98


For most of the '70s, no filmmaker created a greater sensation among audiences and critics than Lina Wertmuller—not Coppola, not Scorsese and not Spielberg. This collection includes Swept Away and Seven Beauties—unqualified successes thanks, in large part, to Giancarlo Giannini and Mariangela Melato—alongside a trio of titles (Ferdinando & Carolina, The Nymph, Summer Night) that represent her precipitous fall from favor. Wertmuller's gift came in her ability to confound viewers who were amazed by her technique and the performances of her actors, but made dizzy by her provocative takes on politics, feminism, love and class.



Lipstick & Dynamite: The First Ladies of Wrestling (NR) (4 stars)


$19.98


Consider this: The Fabulous Moolah (a.k.a., Lillian Ellison) held the title of women's professional wrestling champion, on and off, from 1956 to 1985. Even after losing the crown on MTV to a wrestler managed by Cyndi Lauper, the sixtysomething grappler continued to prowl the squared-circle as a wrestler, promoter, manager, teacher and living legend. Moolah is at the center of Ruth Leitman's disarming documentary, along with her close friend and fellow hall-of-famer, the Great Mae Young, which traces the history of women's wrestling in America. In addition to being extremely entertaining, Lipstick & Dynamite argues convincingly that the lady wrestlers' struggle for parity was no different than those of women in any other walk of life.




Gary Dretzka


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