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Bedtime Story

An exercise in “black humor” bordering on the tasteless, Bedtime Story stars Marlon Brando and David Niven as a pair of womanizing confidence tricksters, operating up and down the Riviera. Pooling their talents, Brando and Niven pull off several scams, many of these requiring Brando to pose as a mental or physical defective. Their current […]

‘D.O.A.’ quick hit

D.O.A./1950/United Artists/83 min. Edmond O’Brien plays the frantic but determined Frank Bigelow who spearheads the hunt for a killer – his own – in this riveting noir from director Rudolph Maté. You’d be freaked out too if you discovered you’d been poisoned and had to track the culprit before it’s too late. Talk about deadline pressure!

Brando as Godfather of Housing Crisis

‘Brickman Brando Bubble Boom’ at Ellen Stewart Theater Marlon Brando made his 21st-century Off Off Broadway debut this week, at the Ellen Stewart Theater on East Fourth Street. Dead for more than a decade, Brando looks great and not so great in the role of Sir John Brickman, a self-made British property baron of the […]

‘Blood Simple’ quick hit

Blood Simple/1984/River Road, Foxton Entertainment/97 min. How FNB would love to meet those darling Coen brothers and probe their diabolical little minds. And of course I’d gush about “Blood Simple,” their first baby, a fast-paced, taut thriller that will keep you guessing till the end. When a husband (Dan Hedaya) confirms that his wife (Frances McDormand) […]

Remembering Hollywood legend Elizabeth Taylor

Elizabeth Taylor, 79, one of the world’s most famous actresses, died today in Los Angeles. Her stunning beauty, charisma and wealth along with eight marriages, 50 movies and tireless advocacy efforts on behalf of those afflicted with HIV/AIDS ensure that her legacy will endure. To that end, I’ve pulled a few of her memorable quotations: […]

‘The Machinist’ quick hit

The Machinist/ 2004/ Paramount Classics, Filmax Entertainment/102 min. The first thing you might notice about Christian Bale in this movie is that he’s a tad skinny. Well, more than a tad. That’s just the beginning of the weirdness by director Brad Anderson, but it’s brilliant weirdness in a story of a factory worker who seems to […]

Chapped lips have met their match: Smith’s Rosebud Salve

 In the 1941 movie “Citizen Kane,” Chas K. utters the word rosebud, providing what seems to be a clue to the mysteries of his personality and the essence of his existence. It was also rumored (off-screen, of course) to be code for the word clitoris.  While Smith’s Rosebud Salve can offer neither a foray into […]

A Streetcar Named Desire

In the classic play by Tennessee Williams, brought to the screen by Elia Kazan, faded Southern belle Blanche DuBois (Vivien Leigh) comes to visit her pregnant sister, Stella (Kim Hunter), in a seedy section of New Orleans. Stella’s boorish husband, Stanley Kowalski (Marlon Brando), not only regards Blanche’s aristocratic affectations as a royal pain but […]

A literate, exciting action movie that’s drop-dead gorgeous

Hanna/2011/Focus Features/111 min. By Michael Wilmington “Hanna” is “Kick-Ass” and “The Bourne Identity” filtered through “Pride and Prejudice” and “Atonement.” And I don’t mean that as a knock. Director Joe Wright, who made the 2005 Keira Knightley version of Jane Austen’s best-loved novel and the lauded film of Ian McEwan’s grim tale “Atonement,” is a […]

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