Career Girls stars Lynda Steadman and Katrin Cartlidge as Annie and Hannah, former college roommates who reunite six years after their graduation from school. The two women are complete opposites; Hannah is tall and confident while Annie is short and shy. Over the span of one magical weekend Annie and Hannah revisit many old and familiar faces and places. Although they have not seen each other in several years they quickly realize that their bond is as strong as ever.

The chance meetings with old acquaintances trigger many flashbacks as they harken back to their college days of chasing men and discussing Emily Bronte over a pint or two. As with real life, not all of the memories are halcyon and some are rather painful. The two friends confront each recollection with honesty, examining each situation as it happened, not how they wished it had happened. By the end of the film Annie and Hannah come to understand just how important each other’s friendship has been in their lives.

Career Girls is director Mike Leigh’s follow-up to 1996’s Academy Award nominated Secrets & Lies. Again Leigh gets award-caliber performances out of this cast. Katrin Cartlidge, who last year was passed over by the Academy for her supporting role in Breaking the Waves, plays Hannah with a certain bravado seldom seen in female roles. Conversely, Lynda Steadman as Annie is a perfectly realized introvert.

Leigh is famous for not writing screenplays. He goes over broad ideas that he wants to get across and asks his cast to work out these ideas through improvisations. This technique certainly would not work for everyone, but it suits Leigh extraordinarily well. Career Girls, like the rest of his work, rings true from beginning to end.

Dr. Strangelove is the story of how a simple series of comedic errors could lead to the annihilation of mankind. General Jack D. Ripper, played by Sterling Hayden, orders a flight of B-52s to bomb Russia. Ripper has gone mad and is convinced that the Russians are engaging in a devious plot to tamper with American water supplies. As the news of this gets back to the United States, the President (Peter Sellers) calls an emergency meeting in the Pentagon.

Upon discussing the matter with his advisors General Buck Turgidson, played by George C. Scott, and Dr. Strangelove (played, again, by Sellers himself), the president finds out that if Russia is bombed they have a doomsday device that will blow up the world. Despite frantic and hilarious attempts to reason with both sides the President is unable to dissuade anyone from standing down from these looming confrontations. The only really sane character throughout all this chaos is a British military officer (Peter Sellers, in role number three) who is an unheard voice of reason while being forced to endure General Ripper’s paranoid ramblings.