Fred Strother Movies

David Simon's masterful social commentary went back to school, quite literally, in the fourth season, which focuses on Baltimore's crumbling education system. A relevant link to its first three seasons is supplied by Roland "Prez" Pryzbylewski (Jim True-Frost), who left the police department to become a teacher at Edward Tilghman Middle School, a hardscrabble institution on life support that services a low-income, drug-infested neighborhood. (Incidentally, Prez's career path is similar to one of the series' producers, Ed Burns). His eighth-grade math class includes a close-knit quartet of friends -- Randy Wagstaff (Maestro Harrell), Michael Lee (Tristan Wilds), Duquan "Dukie" Weems (Jermaine Crawford) and Namond Brice (Julito McCullum). The wisecracking Brice is ignominiously selected to be part of a university experiment studying at-risk kids, which counts a former police commander, Bunny Colvin (Robert Wisdom), as a consultant. Out on the corners, Marlo Stanfield (Jamie Hector) strengthens his grip on the city's West Side narcotics trade once dominated by the Barksdale gang, and with his cold-blooded lieutenants, Chris (Gbenga Akinnagbe) and Snoop (Felicia Pearson), devises an ingenious method to hide the collateral damage of his ascent from the law. This sleight-of-hand bedevils detectives Freamon (Clarke Peters), Greggs (Sonja Sohn) and Bunk (Wendell Pierce). The trio are flummoxed by the lack of victims that would surely coincide with Marlo's ever-widening domain, a savage power grab that also threatens the relative peace of the New Day Co-Op under East Side pooh-bah Proposition Joe (Robert F. Chew). Meanwhile, the Democratic primary in the city's mayoral campaign pits the entrenched African-American incumbent, Clarence Royce (Glynn Turman), against Councilman Tommy Carcetti (Aidan Gillen), a scrappy politico with a savvy campaign manager in Norman Wilson (Reg E. Cathey), but a long shot to become Charm City's first white chief executive in years. ~ Joe Friedrich, Rovi

Omar (Michael K. Williams) hits another Barksdale stash house, but this time, they're better prepared for him, and in the ensuing gun battle, a member of each crew is killed. Bunk (Wendell Pierce) catches the double homicide, and quickly realizes that Omar was involved, but he's also under tremendous pressure to complete an impossible task. For PR purposes, he's been instructed to recover Officer Dozerman's gun, which was stolen after Dozerman was shot. Carcetti (Aidan Gillen) continues to put pressure on the mayor, going to the press with the news that the next police academy class has been postponed for budgetary reasons. An irate Royce (Glynn Turman) orders Burrell (Frankie Faison) to take responsibility for the postponement, angering the commissioner. Prop Joe (Robert F. Chew) warns Stringer (Idris Elba) that the police are listening to their phone conversations. He also tells Stringer "what kills more police than bullets and liquor." It's boredom. "Keep it boring, String," he advises. With the wire dead, Daniels (Lance Reddick) assigns his team a new target in East Baltimore. McNulty (Dominic West) is still obsessed with Stringer, however, and continues to investigate D'Angelo's death. Bodie's (J.D. Williams) crew continues to encroach on one of Marlo's (Jamie Hector) corners, leading to violence. Cutty (Chad L. Coleman) visits an ex-girlfriend who tries to hook him up with a job opportunity. Bunny Colvin (Robert Wisdom), under increasing pressure to reduce felonies in his district, devises a radical plan to make some abandoned blocks in the neighborhood an enforcement-free zone, and coerce the dealers to move there. ~ Josh Ralske, Rovi

America's leading titan of bad taste, John Waters, returns to X-rated territory (well, actually NC-17-rated territory, but you get the idea) for this wildly over-the-top comedy. Sylvia Stickles (Tracey Ullman) is a wife and mother living in Baltimore who, along with her husband Vaughn (Chris Isaak) and mother Big Ethel (Suzanne Shepherd), operates a local convenience store. One day, Sylvia receives a sharp blow to the head, which leaves her with a concussion. However, the concussion comes with an unexpected side effect -- Sylvia has suddenly become a sex addict, and is soon attended to by the perverse and lascivious sexual evangelist Ray-Ray (Johnny Knoxville). When it becomes evident that Vaughn can't keep up with her sensual appetites, Sylvia throws herself into the strange netherworld of Baltimore's community of erotic overachievers, which includes her daughter Caprice (Selma Blair), who is living a double life as über-buxom exotic entertainer Ursula Udders. A Dirty Shame also features supporting performances from Waters regulars Patricia Hearst, Mink Stole, Mary Vivian Pearce, Channing Wilroy, and Jean Hill. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

In this sentimental coming-of-age drama, directed by Richard Mulligan (To Kill a Mockingbird) and written by Mark Medoff (Children of a Lesser God), Whoopi Goldberg plays Clara Mayfield, whom Leona Hart (Kathleen Quinlan) meets up with in Jamaica, where Leona retreats to mourn the death of her baby daughter. Leona comes from a rich Maryland family and she leaves her husband, Bill (Michael Ontkean), and her young son, David (Neil Patrick Harris), back in the States in order to achieve some personal healing. She tells Clara she is in mourning and Clara responds knowingly, "I knew the fact, but not the substance." Hearing this kind of cryptic Charlie Chan-like aphorism, Leona can't resist Clara and hires her as her maid, taking her back with her, like a pet, to Maryland. "Come meet the most wonderful person," she tells her husband, and, to be sure, Clara is out-of-this-world wonderful, and since David's self-absorbed parents are neglecting him for their own private flirtations and obsessions, Clara takes up the slack and becomes, in effect, David's family. Clara dispenses worldly advice and has him spend weekends with her in the inner-city Jamaican community, where David learns how the other half lives. But just as David is letting his guard down and permitting Clara to become his 30-year-old buddy, Clara reveals a chilling past life that includes rape, incest, and suicide. ~ Paul Brenner, Rovi

Written by Walter Lockwood and directed by Joan Micklin Silver, Finnegan Begin Again is a whimsical comedy drama about a late-blooming romance. Robert Preston plays a Mike Finnegan, 65-year-old newspaperman resigned to wasting his time on a lonely hearts column and caring for his ailing, unappreciative wife (Sylvia Sidney). Mary Tyler Moore portrays Liz DeHaan, a much-younger schoolteacher, recently widowed and mired in a go-nowhere relationship with a mortician (Sam Waterston). Liz comes to Mike for advice...and nature takes its course. Finnegan Begin Again premiered February 24, 1985, over the HBO cable service. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Paul Newman stars as an essentially decent cop patrolling that decimated, drug-and-gang-ridden borough known on the city maps as the Bronx, but known to its denizens as "Fort Apache". While Newman tries to hold on to his basic humanity and to treat even the sorriest of the people on his beat with dignity, he can't do much to convince his superiors that blind brutality is not the answer to social blight. When he witnesses fellow-cop Danny Aiello cold-bloodedly murdering a crime suspect, Newman is advised to sweep the whole incident under the rug. He refuses to do so, and as a result becomes "persona non grata" to his former friends on the force. Ed Asner co-stars as the beleaguered captain who has given up trying to treat his job as anything but a necessary evil, while Rachel Ticotin is Newman's love interest. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi