Fruitvale Station

You already know how this movie ends; go see it anyway.
Oscar Julius Grant III (the great and amazing Michael B. Jordan, from Friday Night Lights) is a twenty-two year-old living in California. He's already done time (shown in flashbacks) but is trying to pull his life together. He's trying to be faithful to his devoted girlfriend, Sophina (Melonie Diaz) and is a great father to their young daughter, Tatiana (Ariana Neal). That is when he's around. He tries to keep her out of his rough life, instead of telling her he's going to jail, he says that he is on vacation.
Though he has lost his job at a grocery store because he kept showing up late, he still throws a whole bag of pot into the ocean. Sophina gets mad at him for that, but that doesn't stop them from immediately having sex, while their daughter is downstairs with her great-grandmother.
Oscar isn't a bad guy. A dog is hit by a car driving too fast. He carries the dog off the side of the road and cries upon it leaving this world. He dotes on his daughter and strives to be a good son to his mother (the regal Octavia Spencer). It's her birthday so she's not buying anything. They have a nice family dinner. She even tells them to take the train to town so they don't have to worry about driving. For the record, it's New Year's Eve 2008. Last New Year's Eve, Oscar was in jail and his mother is sick of him doing stuff which lands him in prison. She tells him that she won't come and visit him anymore.
They take the train and countdown to New Year's there. However, it is the train ride back which everyone remembers. He moves away from Sophina and sees a girl, Katie (Ahna O'Reilly) whom he helped earlier with some fish at the grocery store, just being super nice. However, when she says his name, some enemies notice him and a nasty fight begins.
The police are there to greet them at the train station. Everything goes horribly wrong. Oscar and his friends are unarmed. Certainly they are not cooperating but the police are brutal. Sophina is waiting to hear from him. While Oscar is handcuffed, a cop shots him. Even the head cop, who was mean to him earlier (Kevin Durand) can't believe what just happened and even holds Oscar's hand while waiting for an ambulance to arrive. He is taken to the hospital. The camera only shoots Sophina's back but we don't need to see her face to understand that she is dying inside.
Oscar dies. His mother can't even touch him because his death has been ruled a homicide. Sophina picks up little Tatiana and the film ends when she asks where Daddy is.
Though the police man who fatally shot Oscar (Chad Michael Murray, in the film, a diverse role for him) was charged with first degree murder. He claimed that he believed he was reaching for his taser gun instead. He was found guilty of manslaughter and served a mere eleven months in prison. A small price to pay for taking the life of a young man. A split second decision changed the lives of all involved.
This film is extraordinary. The performances capture who the people really were with some shaky camera work to involve you even more in the film. "It's a very good film about a very bad incident." My dad couldn't have said it better. I am still in shock. I can't believe the incident happened. It should have never happened. This film will make you never forget that. This film will be remembered. It deserves every award it wins and then some. Grade: A

Tootsie (1982)

This is a great film and quite hilarious.
Michael Dorsey (Dustin Hoffman) is an opinionated character actor who is struggling to find work in New York City. He is determined to gather $8,000 to produce his roommate's weird play, but he is impossible to work with, trying to tell the directors what his character should be doing. Suddenly, he gets a great idea, he disguises himself as a woman, Dorothy Michaels, and auditions for the role of a woman in a soap opera, getting the part after fighting the director over it, determined not to be put down because he is a woman. So he gets the role of the woman doctor.
He can't believe all the crap women must deal with and he moans to his roommate, Jeff (Bill Murray, great) about not having a good handbag because women are animals in the shopping malls. Though Jeff knows his big secret, Sandy (Teri Garr). It will kill her if she knew the truth. She literally gets suicidal at a birthday party. Instead, they just tell her that a relative died. Sandy does not react well to the actress who plays the role and though Michael is convinced that he is being strong but Sandy believes him to be weak as Emily. However, his disguise creates a problem: Julie Nichols (an Oscar-winning Jessica Lange) who plays a nurse in the soap. She is also a single mother with a widowed father, Les (Charles Durning), but she is sleeping with the sexist director (Dabney Coleman). Plus, she thinks (naturally) that Dorothy is a woman. Julie is honest but must have a low opinion of herself for she even admits that she always picks the worst guy for her.
The film plays out with a various amount of problems, including Julie's father developing a crush on Dorothy and the two of them having an odd sort of relationship. He even goes as far as proposing to Dorothy. However, Michael is in a complicated relationship with Sandy as he slept with her after undressing to try on one of her dresses for Dorothy to wear. Then there is also Julie, whom Michael has a crush on but Dorothy is more like a mother figure to her.
Dorothy's character (Emily Kimberly, hospital administrator) is so popular that she is asked to sign another contract but Michael wants out. His big reveal is not to be missed. The fallout probably should have been worse, and a lawsuit probably would have occurred in real life.
Dorothy is surprisingly feminist. Too bad her theories on women don't transfer over to Michael who even follows Julie's pick-up advice to the letter and gets a drink dumped on him and he ignores Sandy, as though they had never had sex. However, many female fans think that Dorothy is a huge role model for them.
Dustin Hoffman is brilliant; this is certainly another one of his timeless roles, along with Rizzo in Midnight Cowboy, Raymond in Rain Man and Benjamin in The Graduate. The rest of the cast is also brilliant, including the director Sydney Pollock as Michael's agent, George Fields.  The film is hilarious. However, though Michael's big reveal is hilarious, I didn't like it much. Oh well, a small problem. To Michael, Dorothy taught him what a woman really goes through in a day and how men take advantage of them (literally and figuratively). Hopefully, he'll become a better man for it. Being a woman is complicated. Grade: A

Monsters University

This was a very good film.
It begins when Mike (Noah Johnston as a child, Billy Crystal as an adult) goes on a field trip to visit Monsters, Inc. He falls in love with scaring. It becomes his life goal to be a top scarer.
Eventually, he goes to Monsters University, but his brilliance is overlooked by the reputation and family name of James T. Sullivan (John Goodman). Sully, as his friends call him, has the natural ability but refuses to open a book to study so his grades are horrible while Mike excels at cracking a book to study so his grades are fantastic.
When its time for the final to see if everyone will be able to stay in the program, Sully and Mike get into a fight which knocks over the record scream canister. The Dean of the School (Helen Mirren), who holds the record, is furious but immediately gives them a scenario to see if they pass. They both fail: Mike because he cannot scare and Sully because he didn't use the right technique.
Mike won't give up on his dream so he decides to join the school wide competition: the Scare Games, joining the weakest fraternity with a band of misfits: Don, the older former salesman (Joel Murray), the twins: Terri and Terry (Sean Hayes and Dave Foley), the extreme oddball Squishy (Peter Sohn) and Art (Charlie Day). Because they need six members, Sully also joins the team, forcing him and Mike to become roommates and get along with each other. Teamwork is not something that they do, at first, and its only a miracle, and another team being disqualified from the competition to keep them in the Games.
After that, they start realizing that they have to pull together and use their differences to their advantages. Still, the other fraternities think they are a joke and make fun of them. Yet, they continue winning the events and advance to the finals.
However, this is when they actually have to scare a fake child so Sully insists that Mike go last. The two teams are neck and neck, but Mike manages to get a good scream out of the fake child. However, the truth is soon revealed:: Sully rigged the game so the child would scare easily. Mike is devastated that he doesn't have the gift of natural scarer.
He is determined for this to be broken so he gets an actual door and goes in to scare a child, but this backfires horribly causing Sully to go in and rescue him. They break all the rules and the Dean is furious and waits for the authorities as everyone knows that children are toxic. Though they manage to escape, but barely, the two are kicked out of the college. The Dean does have some kind words for Mike, saying she wished more students would surprise her, just as he did.
The two decide to remain teammates and start off at the bottom of Monsters, Inc and gradually work their way up, leading into the first movie, released more than a decade ago.
The film is quite good, with good twists and turns and some fun jokes tucked in between. The only problem I had was that I found the part where Mike and Sully hide out in the human world to be far-fetched and creepy for a somewhat light-hearted film. My friend did also point out that despite appearing in trailers, Mike is never actually turned into a disco ball, though that could have easily happened, given the fraternity's disco ball crashed from the ceiling. Still, a great film which sets up nicely to Monsters, Inc. Another problem is that the film lacked a true villain, though Mirren had her moments. Randy also appeared but he and Mike were friends, shocker. Grade: A-

E.T.: The Extra Terrestrial (1982)

This is one of the best family films of all time.
Elliot (Henry Thomas) is a lonely boy, the middle child of parents who have recently separated. His older brother Michael (Robert McNaughton) is a jerk (and reminds me constantly of The Middle's Axl) but has his moments of sweetness. Then, while his brother's friends are over, he is sent away to get pizza and then something amazingly odd happens. He notices a strange sight in the shed out back. A spaceship has landed but thanks to some men chasing it, an alien is left behind and finds his way back to Elliot's shed. Elliot is shocked and drops the pizza. But when everyone else joins him, the odd creature is gone. Michael's friends make fun of him even more now.
But Elliot is not wrong. The alien creature is still around. Elliot fakes sick (in a great scene) and then spends some time with the alien. Upon arriving home from school, Gertie (a very young Drew Barrymore) and Michael discover the creature. They are also beyond surprised. The boys make Gertie promise not to tell Mom (Dee Wallace-Stone) about the alien, soon dubbed ET. ET can also talk, learning it while Gertie was watching a simple television show. ET also has special healing powers, healing a cut on Elliot's fingers and bringing dying flowers back to life.
Then, without much explanation, Elliot becomes emotionally attached to ET, they have the same feelings at the same time. The following day, during a science class, Elliot behaves oddly, imitating ET's emotions as ET channel flips and explores the house. Elliot is set to dissect frogs but cannot bring himself to kill them, so he frees all the frogs, causing his teacher to call Elliot's mother. Which means that Gertie is unable to introduce her to ET.
ET, then, goes on a mission to phone home, using household items to build an elaborate machine so this can be done. On Halloween night, Elliot bikes out to the clearing in the forest so this can be done but as the phone call is made, Elliot falls asleep and ET nearly drowns in the river.
By morning, Elliot's mother is terrified that something bad has happened to her son. Elliot returns but is very sick. By afternoon, the kids have to introduce ET to their mother who freaks out and grabs her children and tries to run out the house, but she can't. The feds have been eavesdropping on the family for the whole time and now take over the house, with tons of fancy equipment to research and examine the alien. Elliot and ET are both very sick but despite Elliot's pleadings, ET takes a turn for the worst and as the flowers keel over, ET also dies. The two are forever separated. Elliot is devastated as he is torn away from him. Luckily, an kind investigator (Peter Coyote) lets Elliot say good-bye to ET, but ET is not actually dead, he is alive, just like the savior. Then, there is the desperate attempt to free ET and let him board his mother ship before the people come and take him away. Thanks to some great bike riding, and ET's magic of flying to escape. The final scene is touching as the whole family wishes ET well as he leaves them forever, hopefully better than they were at the start.
The acting, despite being largely unknown, is fantastic with an interesting plot. There is only one major flaw: it is never explained how Elliot and ET bond so they feel emotions as one. Still, the film is marvelous with special effects that don't appear dated. The score only adds to the enjoyable experience. Too bad there aren't more movies like this being released now. Grade: A-

Pillow Talk (1959)

This movie was actually pretty good and held up surprisingly well.
Jan Morrow (Doris Day) starts her day as she normally does, listening to music but then she picks up her phone to make a phone call and she can't. Brad Allen (Rock Hudson) is talking and crooning to one of his many girlfriends. This is made possible by the fact that the two shared a party line-more than one household would have the same phone line, with different sorts of rings for each household. However, I would have a problem with this, but will get to that later.
Jan is furious that Brad keeps hogging up the line because she has calls to make that are more important. She is an interior decorator and needs to make business calls. She is disgusted with him as he woos more than one woman at a time, plus in his apartment, he has a switch that locks the door, turns off the lights and turns on the record player while the other unfolds the sofa into a bed. Yikes. She complains to the phone company and they send a woman out to investigate, Jan, as I would, expresses her disgust about the whole thing. Of course, a woman will find no fault with Brad.
Brad and Jan have never met but they get the chance after Jan is driven home from a client party with a horny college student (Nick Adams, looking much older than a college student) who nearly rapes her in his tiny car. Then they go to get drinks which is the only way he would leave her alone. He falls over, drunk and Brad is there, on a date of his own. He and his date are seated right next to Jan and the idiot so he overhears who she is. But he opts to disguise himself and adds a heavy Texas accent and tells her a fake name. She is smitten. Brad becomes Tex and a total gentleman. When he takes her up to his hotel room, it really is only to get his coat. She soon falls in love with him and he with her, though it is all doomed.
Jonathan (Tony Randall) stands in the way. He has hired Jan to decorate his office and has a crush on her, despite her being completely uninterested and has three failed marriages behind him. He is only Brad's boss. He is disgusted when Jan breaks a date with him so he hires a detective to learn what has been going on and immediately discovers the truth and forces Brad to go elsewhere for the weekend but Jan goes with him. However, though Jonathan follows her, she discovers Brad's song (he's a songwriter) that she had heard him sing to several others over the phone. She is furious and then Jonathan comes. Jonathan takes her home, Jan cries the whole way, for sixty miles. Jonathan is punched at a diner by others, thinking that he took advantage of her.
Brad misses Jan and decides that he must get her back. He talks to her maid (Thelma Ritter, also Oscar-nominated) who can drink him under the table but at least her idea works. Alma (the maid) tells him to redecorate his apartment. Jan takes on the job, despite her better judgment. She exacts her revenge and redecorates, but the result is horrible, an eyesore if there ever was one. Brad is not pleased and knocks down her door, pulls her out of bed and carries her to his apartment. But he still manages to win her over, by telling her that he broke it off with all the other girls and hired her solely to get back together with her. It works.
There is also a hilarious subplot. When Brad is trying to hide from Jan, he walks into an OBG-YN office but doesn't realize it. The doctor thinks it's a miracle that a man is pregnant and is furious that his nurse let Brad just get away. At the end, Brad goes to announce the news that Jan is pregnant by saying he's going to have a baby and the doctor carts him away. What an interesting ending.
I do have some problems with the film. I did know what party lines were going into the film (they briefly mention it also which works for the modern viewer) but I always thought that the two parties lived near to each other, but that is not the case as Brad lived several blocks away from Jan. I also hated that he was mad at here and just carried her away. Still, it is much easier to disgust than the awkward Bus Stop, where the main character is horrible and controlling over women and doesn't even realize that he's in the wrong. I will watch it again.
Day, Oscar-nominated here (not fully deserved), is great as is Hudson (though it is awkward seeing him slightly hint that Rex might be a Mama's boy or homosexual when he was truly homosexual). Ritter is great in her small role as the alcoholic housekeeper, whose days are brightened by overhearing Brad's songs and conversations over the line. However, she did not deserve a nomination, sorry. The songs are also great and I liked that the screen would be split to show what Jan and Brad would be doing at the same time, a technique that is seldom used today which is the main tragedy. I would recommend this film to many. Grade: A-

Friday Night Lights: Season Five Recap and Reaction

Wow, I cried during the series finale, unfortunately I had some issues with the beginning of the season.
Let's get down to it:
Vince (Michael B. Jordan) is still the quarterback and doing well in his position. His father (Cress Williams) is out from prison and things seem to be better, but soon his past catches up to him. Unable to come up with the money, instead of asking coach (Kyle Chandler) for the money, he goes to his father, who takes care of the sticky situation. After this, Vince takes his father's often half-baked advice when it comes to college recruiting even though this lands him in different and illegal situations. His ego also explodes but then everything comes crashing down; he is benched for a game and not offered the scholarship. His father starts drinking again and probably also starts other things. Dad is kicked out of the house, though Eric insists that he come to the final football game. The last game coach says to him, "You will never know how proud I am of you." Vince, by that point, had realized how much he truly owed to coach, saying without him he would probably be in juvie or lying in a ditch somewhere. I'm glad his ego is back in check.
Luke (Matt Lauria) is a senior. I don't know how he became a senior already, but okay, the way the characters age in this show is ridiculous but I'll get over that only because the show is so good. He is having his own issues. Colleges are not going after him and this depresses him. He is playing with tons of heart but is only offered one scholarship to a small college. He's uninterested. He also tries and successfully gets back together with Becky (Madison Burge) though that relationship is soon in jeopardy and not because of his super-strict religious parents. I'll get to that later.
Jess (Jurnee Smolett) doesn't want to be a rally girl, but then gets into a fight with the loose girl who takes over by putting her underwear in Vince's locker. She then becomes the equipment manager and soon even convinces Eric to take her under her wing for she wants to become a coach. She breaks up with Vince after his ego inflates but they get back together after he becomes a normal person again.
Hastings Runkle (Grey Damon) is the new addition to the show. He is a basketball player recruited for the team. He is grossly undeveloped and has virtually no character development through the season. He is shown sneaking a bottle of alcohol to an away game. He does eventually bond with his teammates and learns to love football.
Becky (Madison Burge) has family problems. Her mother is away so she starts the season living with her father and trashy stepmom who basically wants nothing to do with her. She moves out and lives with Billy (Derek Phillips) and Mindy (Stacey Oristano) and their baby Stevie. Mindy doesn't like her at first, but eventually they do bond. Mindy helps her get back into pageants and helps her recover from the abortion. She does get together with Luke and that relationship is actually going pretty good until Tim (Taylor Kitsch) is released from prison.
Julie (Aimee Teegarden) is the character I have the most problems with this season. She does go away to college but almost immediately begins an affair with a married TA, Derek Bishop (Gil McKinney). This ends badly with his wife returning and slapping Julie and calling her a slut in front of her whole dorm despite even telling her that this isn't even the first time he husband cheated on her. That is an over reaction and completely inappropriate. Julie takes the news badly and returns home, even crashing her car so she can stay at home. Derek finally returns and convinces her to return to college but in reality he only wants her back. She leaves but drives up to Chicago first to visit Matt (Zach Gilford). Though Matt is happy to see her, he doesn't wish to be her safety net, so soon Julie does return to school despite having missed like several weeks. That is my main problem with the show. She spends so little time at college, missing her exams, taking them later and then finishing up early so she can return home. I also found it horribly out of character that she would actually have an affair with her married, married TA, the Julie I know and mostly like would not be that stupid.
Tami (Connie Britton) is the guidance counselor at East Dillon and her new project is Epyck (Emily Rios). Epyck (yes, that's a completely crazy name) has many issues including being a foster child. She is great with little Gracie (Madilyn Landry) but then gets into a fight and accidentally shoves Tami against a window, forcing the cops to be called. She is taken away and never heard from again. Tami is then offered a great job in Philadelphia.
Eric (Kyle Chandler) is leading his football to many wins though his attitude has changed. The team often plays dirty now. Still, he is fiercely loyal and speaks well of Tim at his parole hearing. However, despite leading the team to states, the district cannot support two football teams and the Lions are cut. Eric is devastated but is offered the job as head coach.
In minor plots, Buddy (Brad Leland) is still around and his son, Buddy, Jr. (Jeff Rosick) is having issues and is sent back to live with Buddy. Buddy, Jr joins the football team and starts cleaning up his act but then suffers a hairline fracture in his ankle and thus is benched for the rest of the season.
For the utterly brilliant series finale, the team is headed to states. But the bigger issues are at home. Tami is not pleased that Eric doesn't want to consider moving to Philadelphia for her career. When he is offered the coaching job, she tells him, "I'm going to tell you what you didn't have the grace to tell me, Congratulations." Eric is being a complete jerk about the whole thing, but in the end, despite loving his team and players, he decides not to take the new job.
Matt returns for Christmas and proposes to Julie. She says yes, fortunately, but then wonders what her dad said when Matt asked for permission, something he never did. So Matt back tracts and poses the question to Eric in an hilariously awkward scene. Eric says no, not in a million years because they are so young (he is 19 and she is only 18). But his advice doesn't matter because Julie already said yes. At the conversation dinner, Eric even tells them that the biggest and most important part of marriage is compromise, something he is not doing at the moment. Julie tells her parents that they were also young and managed the many moves during their marriage; they are her marriage role model. Julie almost has second thoughts later as Grandma (Louanne Stephens) presents her with her wedding dress (which stayed way too white, but whatever), but kind words from Matt help her get over that. I would have been devastated if they had broken up. I just love the two of them together.
Tim does want to move to Alaska though he decides against that after Tyra (Adrianne Palicki) returns. They get back together though she has her dreams and he has his, but eventually maybe one day, they'll (the dreams) will merge. He and Billy mend their broken relationship. (Tim was completely furious with Billy who was rather ungrateful for everything Tim did to them.) Becky recovers from her crush on him.
Becky's mom returns and Luke apologizes for being a jerk, which he was. Cheryl (Alicia Witt) approves though warns him sternly to use a condom this time. He better.
Jess is moving to Dallas as her dad's business took off. Eric promises that he will make some calls on her behalf so she can continue shadowing the coaches.
Then comes the state game. The teams are evenly matched but the Lions are down as the game clock winds down, so Vince must throw a hail mary, but then the show jumps to eight months into the future. The only way you know that the Lions won is showing everyone wearing the state rings on their fingers.
Eric has a new coaching job in Philadelphia. Julie is living with Matt in Chicago. There were no close-ups of their hands so I couldn't tell if they are married or not. Tim is still in Texas building a house on his land. Vince is leading the Panthers, still as quarterback. Matt joins the army and gives Becky his state ring to hold on to as he leaves. Jess is during her thing in Dallas. Billy and Mindy are having twins. Life is good.
Smash is not shown playing well for his college but he is not shown. Lyla isn't even mentioned. Landry attends Rice University. Jason (Scott Porter) and Erin finally made it legal and he moved up in his sports agent job.
The problems I had with the series finale include mostly that all the couples paired up. I guess I should just move to Dillon to find a boyfriend because that is where everyone found their sole mates. Still, I love happy endings, but come on, everyone hooking up with everyone else. Seriously. I already ranted about Julie's plot line being horribly out of character for her. I also thought Eric was a complete jerk, but fortunately, he redeemed himself. Chandler also won a fully deserved Emmy for the finale. He was brilliant. Too bad Britton couldn't have joined in the fun, she also deserved one. The acting is fabulous with great music and seamless editing. Too bad some of the actors haven't found good roles since. Still, I felt that season one was easily the best. I cried during the finale after five great seasons, I will truly miss this show forever. It is easily the best TV drama I've seen yet (but I haven't seen that many).  Season Five: A-, Series: A-

Georgy Girl (1966)

This is one of my all-time favorite films. You can watch it via Netflix or if you have On Demand, it's under the free movies on TCM. I'd recommend checking it out.
Georgy (Lynn Redgrave) is a young woman who, as one of the characters puts it, just misses beautiful. And she does. But part of it is her fault. She wears baggy, unflattering sweaters and her hair is a mess, but she's likeable and oh so kind.
Georgy's parents, Ted and Doris (Bill Owen and Clare Kelly) are the butler/friend and housekeeper to the wealthy James Leamington (James Mason). James and his wife Ellen (Rachel Kempson, Redgrave's real life mother) are unhappily married. James has long-since taken Georgy under his wing. He paid for her finishing school in Switzerland and even lets her hold her music classes in his loft. Despite all the fatherly things he's done for her over the years, it turns out he is quite glad that she is not his actual daughter. He puts up with all her crazy antics, something her own father does not.
Georgy lives in the 'slums' as her father calls them with the beautiful but nasty Meredith (Charlotte Rampling, always fairly evil). Meredith fully takes Georgy for granted, but Georgy just lets her. Meredith is dating the kind banker Jos (Alan Bates), but that doesn't stop her from seeing others on the side. Meredith and Jos also have sex, forcing Georgy to leave her own apartment. When Meredith finally does decide to spend time with Georgy, a date calls her at the last minute and she ditches Georgy for him. Georgy cries after her, "I'll think about you when I drink my cocoa." Instead, she opts to go to James's birthday, making a crazy and slightly hilarious scene. Here, James makes an offer. He will take Georgy to be his mistress. When Georgy's father interrupts them, Georgy attempts to show him the contract James just offered her, he dismisses it instantly, not wanting to interfere in anything James does for her. He's a great father.
Meanwhile, Meredith decides she wants a change. She's willing to marry Jos. His response? "You must be pregnant." She is, and then in the next breathe says that she already destroyed two of his children. When Georgy finds out, she simply says that no matter what, despite the ever expanding population, Meredith will not be getting any more of her money.
Meredith does not abort the pregnancy; she marries Jos, but is miserable the whole time, hating having all the baby stuff in the tiny flat and hating all the changes to her body. Jos doesn't mind.
Then, Jos realizes that he really loves Georgy and chases her into the streets, taking off his clothes so she will come home with him. They do have sex, but while Jos has no regrets, Georgy feels bad so Meredith went into labor that night. Meredith is a pill at the hospital, taking in the gas when she shouldn't and then not caring about her daughter once she's born. In fact, she wants the baby adopted straight away. Jos doesn't care, as he believes that no child should have a mother like that, though Georgy pleads with him, saying that Meredith will be great.
Georgy falls in love with the baby and brings her home, keeping house with Jos, though he soon also grows disinterested with her, as she will always pick the baby over having sex with him. (Meredith leaves with one of her other lovers almost immediately after leaving the hospital.)
The baby is taken away, thanks to the unconventional living arrangements and Jos leaves Georgy for the unknown. Luckily, the ending is a happy one, for Georgy at least. Thanks to his wife dying, James is able to make Georgy happy, by getting the baby back and marrying her. The film ends with the two of them driving away for their honeymoon, but instead of paying attention to James, Georgy is lavishing all of her attention on the baby Sara.
I can relate to Georgy, not completely, but in many ways. She wants a baby more than a lasting, real relationship. Jos later describes as crazy but not because of her height (she is rather tall) or her looks but because she believes that she can save everyone. She tries to see the best in people, but it backfires.
The film has its issues, like having a man want to make a young girl who is really like a daughter become his mistress. And Jos isn't all the great, either, though he at least appreciates Georgy for who she really is. But then, he is also selfish, like Meredith, wanting Georgy to give him all of her attention when she relates better to children.
Redgrave was Oscar-nominated her but lost to Elizabeth Taylor in Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, though Redgrave also deserved to win. Mason was also nominated, though I will argue he was miscast. He did great, but he was and looked too old for the role. Never mind, the film is still great, though odd. I will watch it again and again. I feel for Georgy, though she is also her own worst enemy. Grade: A

The Heat

Oil and water do not mix. This film proves that.
Water is Sarah Ashburn (Sandra Bullock). She is a tight-lipped FBI agent. She is smart and great at her job but doesn't work well with people.
Oil is Shannon Mullins (Melissa McCarthy). She is a Boston-native with a crazy, loud family. Shannon also legitly lives in a cheap apartment in bad part of town, but she has an arsenal full of weapons some of which may not be legal. Like Sarah, she is great at her job though in a much more unconventional way.
Sarah is reassigned to Boston as part of her new case to catch the nasty serial killer Larkin. When Shannon arrests a low level drug dealer, Sarah goes to interrogate him because he is attached to her case. But she doesn't know that no one but Shannon should interrogate Shannon's arrest victims. Shannon is so furious that she goes around her boss's office looking for his balls. I kid you not. Shannon always is crazy, especially in the interrogation room, even using Russian roulette with her gun, pointing it at the guy's balls so she will gain information.
They are forced to work together, something Sarah has never done well. Shannon is also less than thrilled about the idea. Shannon also illegally obtains the private records about the case. She is completely unprofessional. Sarah is always too professional and uptight. She finally loosens up, only after Shannon literally cuts her clothes to make her look sexier so she can closer to this guy involved in the case and tap his phone.
The night goes well, after all they successfully tap his phone but then as they leave the night club, they are being tailed. It turns out that the DEA is also after the same people. One of the DEAs is an albino whom Shannon makes fun of constantly.
However, the night ends badly with Jason (Michael Rapaport), Shannon's brother, whom she arrested, being back in the drug dealing business. Sarah wants to use him as a mole but Shannon refuses, preferring to keep him safe instead.

The film turns bad from here, though humor still sneaks in. Shannon's family must leave the city so their lives aren't in danger, which is an interesting scene, considering all four brothers, two girlfriends, parents and a huge dog squeeze into the van. However, it is all for naught, as Jason goes back to deal with the shipment. But he is caught and put into a coma.


Jason does survive, and Sarah (growing up in the foster care system) finally has a sister, in the form of Shannon. Maybe Sarah will finally get a love interest, in the form of her assistant, Levy (Marlon Wayans).
The film is entertaining, though sometimes the jokes go on for too long and the one scene is completely gross and unnecessary: where Sarah tries and fails to perform a tracheotomy but it goes horribly wrong. Still, Bullock and McCarthy turn in great performances, if McCarthy is quite over the top, but it is needed. Without her performance, the film would have boring and probably pretty miserable to watch. I will watch it again because I did have a good time with my friends. Too bad the script has its weak points. Grade: B+