Loverly

On Real Women Have Curves (2002).

America Ferrera is glorious as Ana Garcia, the voluptuous young woman who's destined for greater things, but her strict, overbearing mother keeps her from pursuing her dreams. Aside from always criticizing her daughters for being "too fat", she believes that they can't be real women until they're married with children. But Ana knows she can do so much more than just stay home and scrub the kitchen floors.

Ana's boyfriend adores her just the way she is, why shouldn't he? She's confident, she doesn't give a damn what other people think, she's a beautiful woman, and she knows it. When they make love for the first time, she tells him to keep the lights on. "This is what I look like," she says, caressing her curves in front of the mirror, "bella."

Many women, myself included, would kill to have that kind of self-confidence. But here's to getting there.

On Billie Holiday.

Jeanne Moreau once said that Billie could "express more emotion in one chorus than most actresses can in three acts." Happiness, sadness, unequivocal desire, pain and longing, all carried on a single note, that's Billie. Best known for a tune that was written especially for her, "Strange Fruit", my personal favorite is "Good Morning Heartache (1956 Version)."

Stop haunting me now
Can't chase you no how
Might as well get used to you hanging around
Good morning heartache
Sit down...

Listening to her is like holding a stranger who's laughing and crying over her most passionate love affair, the one she'll remember forever, though it's gone now, lost, irretrievable. At the end, you'll be in tears too, surprised that you could feel so much, so intensely, for someone you barely know.

And soon, you'll be shocked to discover that that stranger is you.