Born to Win
The film starts with a thirty-old not-very-good-looking man preparing some joints.Days and nights are touch and go for JJ (George Segal) a petty thief and heroin addict who runs errands and commits robberies to support his habit.He met his girl friend Parm (Karen Black) one night while stealing her car. They have a sexy-kinda conversation and Parm lets him to sleep in her flat. They will stick together through everything JJ gets involved in. While delivering a package of illicit drugs for local drug dealer and pimp Vivian (Hector Elizondo), JJ decides to steal it but is caught by the police. He runs away and hides inside a laundramat dryer machine, but detective Danny (Robert DeNiro) puts the machine to work and waits for him to go out non-chalantly.Finally caught, the police agree to let him go if JJ turns "narc" and sets up the Geek in a sting operation with detective Danny (Robert De Niro), something Jay Jay doesn't want to do because he feels it will ensure his death. JJ arranges a meeting between himself and Vivian. Vivian tells him to go to Kennedy airport the following morning at 9 o'clock for a 800-dollar package.Before doing the "deed", he goes to sleep with Parm, and she says she loves another man during the fastfood dinner they share, but then she says it's a joke. The next morning, when JJ leaves for the airport, she wants to go with him as she is afraid that something dangerous is going to happen to him. JJ tries to convince her to stay at home, saying that it'll a twenty-year sentence for her if she gets caught. Parm threatens him to shout so much that the neighbours will call for the police, so he has to take her with him.A businessman-dressed man (Vic Ramos) gives JJ a briefcase with the drug in the parking of the airport. Parm and that man eye each other with distrust. The exchange happens at another parking, and when Parm asks whether the maffia is involved, the answer is "no". The police appear and they have to run away. Parm is taken by the police, but JJ is left free. The drug dealers hit him until they are convinced hes' telling the truth. The boss dealer tells JJ to undress, and that he'll get his clothes back when he is capable of returning the drugs. They give JJ a fancy and glamurous lady's nightgown and he is imprisoned in one of the rooms of their flat. From there, JJ tries to say something to his neighbrours. The two lady neighbours, a young girl (Jane Elder) and her mother (Diane Molneri), they finally call the police because they think he's a pervert of some kind.When the police arrive, the ensuing shooting gives an opportunity for JJ to escape, dressed in the women's nightgown. He goes to an exclusive executive clothing shop, and he dresses himself up with a pair of trousers and a nice shirt. The shop assistant (Max Brandt) realises that something weird is going on, but JJ asks him what he's gonna do about it and leaves with his new clothes on, with the price tags still on them.He goes to Parm once again. In the snowed freezing beach they are alone, hugging and kissing. He says he wants some payment for his twenty-year spenditure. Parm asks him what he really wants, if money is so important to him. She hummers a tune, a soft ballad. Parm ends up hugging him as if he were a baby.JJ feels the need, his habit kicking back in. He has to go to the diner which is the front for petty drug dealing business. There, in the back yard, JJ wakes his friend Billy (Jay Fletcher) from his drugged sopour. With some difficulty, they find somebody eager to sell them some drugs. They want to share them, so they go to a public restroom. While JJ is preparing his dose, Billy takes his dose first and they immediately make him feel sick. JJ tries to take Billy to hospital but as soon as they reach the lift Billy drops dead. JJ runs away leaving Billy's body in the lift, preventing the lift doors to close. JJ runs like a maniac through the streets until he gets to Parm's flat.JJ and Parm decide to leave New York and on the way they are stopped by the police who arrest Parm for possession of drugs. The police officer in civilian clothes accompanying Danny (Ed Madsen) says that Parm looks like a hooker. They search Parm's car without a warrant. JJ shouts so another police officer punckes him in his belly. She was driving and it was her car, so she is taken in the back seat of the police car.JJ is left alone, without anywhere to go to or lie down. The gossip has spread and nobody wants to sell shit to him. In a seedy bar, JJ has to beg for some drugs. Even Vivian's girlfriend Veronica (Paula Prentiss), feels sorry for him. She still feels some warmth towards him, but the harsh reality of life prevents her from trying to help him in any way.JJ is given some drugs by Geek, but the former feels sure they are bad and that they are designed to kill him. However, he is also so driven by his addiction and the film ends with JJ freezing while sitting in a park bench, tremble half because of the freezing cold and half because of his need for drugs.What will he decide?
melodrama