Precious: Based on the Novel Push by Sapphire

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  November 22, 2009

  ceWEBrity

  The tale itself may seem conventional, and in some regards it is, but Precious isn't afraid to be bizarre, nor is it apologetic for the situations and characters it presents. With a life as hard as Precious's, it only makes sense that she would want to retreat into her vivid, col...( read more)orfully contrasted fantasies; the fact that we see both poles of her fucked-up existence makes watching all the more difficult. Precious is an elegant counter to something of hopeful, blind idealism such as Slumdog Millionaire; unlike the latter film, things are DEFINITELY not okay at the end of her tale, but there's still hope to be found. A little of the shade and the misery that was eternally present in Precious's face (communicated flawlessly by Gabby Sidibe, who'll be receiving Oscar attention soon) has been chipped away by her newfound gifts and revelations. Precious is an audacious movie for positing an obese black woman as a cinematic hero, and it doesn't even sanctify her at all; she's sort of a difficult person to like, but the movie makes you work for it, and sure enough you become invested in her success. Again, this is mostly due to Sidibe's portrayal of a girl with a sneaky, subdued sort of intelligence, the kind of person who has a lot of insight but is too downtrodden to share it with anyone.
  
  Precious, as I said before, is a bizarre movie. I don't think some of the directorial choices are going to work for everyone, most notably the unusual cutaway to a Vittorio de Sica film, superimposed with Precious and her mother acting out a scene about eating; though it can be read as a benchmark as to how far Precious is willing to go to escape her life, most viewers will probably just be thinking "what the fuck?" But then the entire movie is sort of "what the fuck?" so it really isn't that much of a stretch. Aside from a simple narrative perspective, the brightness and vividity of the fantasy scenes offer immense relief, standing directly opposite of the harsh darkness of Precious's world. The oppressive yellows and browns of her apartment melt away into shimmering reds and blues, lit from corner to corner and filled with smiling faces.
  
  The Oscar prognostication for the film hasn't been too far off. This is a little darker than the Academy generally goes to, and without the perfect ending of Slumdog Millionaire to run to, they might be shut down by it. But there's no denying the potency of the performances, especially Mo'Nique's, the film's not-so-secret weapon. The terms on which she delivers this performance seem a little unfair - Mary is such an incomprehensible, inhuman monster that you wonder what circumstances could possibly have created someone like her - but there's no denying the gut-wrenching technical proficiency with which she administers it. When she speaks, the unbelievability of her character seems completely overshadowed by how larger than life she is; she's there, and there's nothing anyone can do about it. She is hypnotic.

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  November 20, 2009

  JeT0425

  Review coming soon (11/21/09).

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  November 18, 2009

  hobster1

  Emotionally uncompromising portrait of an overweight, illiterate inner city teen who has just become pregnant with her second child. Unflinching study is so raw and harrowing, it?s difficult to watch in parts. Be warned, this is grim stuff. Director Lee Daniels wisely lightens...( read more) the proceedings with sporadic fantasy sequences that provide some relief, even humor, to the cruel details of her life. Extraordinary newcomer Gabourey Sidibe as Precious heads up a cast that is uniformly excellent. Also of special note is standup comedian Mo'Nique in a courageously grotesque performance as her abusive mother. Impressive drama takes the viewer to places that will make you uncomfortable, but it presents her circumstances honestly and with humanity.

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  November 5, 2009

  johnd62

  I remember talk to my good flixster friend Riley about "Up" and we mentioned that men don't cry, we just have mist coming out of our eyes during movies. Well ladies and gentlemen, you could be mother f*cking love child of but your going to weep like a 5 year old who just stubbed ...( read more)his toe watching "Precious". The best way to describe this film is a poetic sukerpunch of a masterpiece. Yes I get it the story has been done a million times. Poor, illiterate black girl trying to make life better for herself but trust me nothing prepares you for the sheer power of this film.
  Part of the reason for this is that when you look at the cast and director clearly showing a love for the novel and a personal connection with the character that it brings out unforeseen power in everyone involved. Seriously how in all hell does the star of "Glitter" and the host if "Charm School" pull this off? Simply put then cut the bull sh*t out of their performances. Mariah Carey pulling a complete 180 degree turn, proves to have the subtlety and fearlessness that suggests that personally makes "Glitter" nothing but a real bad memory in my eyes as far as her career goes. Also props to Lenny Kravitz for a very solid acting debut.
  However, every year there is one performance, that just blows everything else out there, like a hurricane of performance. This year it has to be Mo'Nique as the abusive mother. Why because anyone can play the b*tch from hell and make her an absolute monster and that would be fine. What she does here is go past all of that and finds the tormented and tragic soul Mary and makes us even sympathize to a certain degree. Its a risk not even the majority of Hollywood's A-list is willing to take but Mo'Nique runs with it and excels.
  Though lets not take the credit from two less showy but equally powerful performances. Paula Patton is given the most difficult job here, providing the source of light in a film that is about as dark as an Alaskian night and without the big oscar moments is sure to be the most overlooked performance of the year. Which is unfortunate because she is amazing here, there is nothing sugar coated and certain about her teacher role but its her drive and hope that sets up the film's spirit.
  Though none of this would be any good if the lead did not deliver and Gabourey 'Gabby' Sidbie is something that cannot even be described, it simply has to be seen.
  As for director Lee Daniels, I got to admit this is a huge surprise for me. Not being a big fan of "Shadowboxer" but what he does here is amazing. What is essentially a combination of a black "A Serious Man" and a Tyler Perry, Daniels delivers an amazing understanding for both the darkness and beauty of life and none of it feels either corny or preachy but not overly dark and hopeless. Its amazing accomplishment and I'll be the one of many pushing for the academy to give this man the credit he deserves. As everyone else involved in this masterpiece.
  So how do I end this review, simply put "Precious" is not a film I recommend you see or hint that it maybe worth your time depending on your mood. This is a film you MUST see! Seriously can't find a screening near you I'll look, I'll pick you up, hell if it comes down to it I'll even pay for your ticket. Just don't miss this movie!

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  October 31, 2009

  her69eyes

  "Precious" is this year's major awards picture - it was a big winner at both the 2009 Sundance Film Festival and the Toronto International Film Festival, and it's sure to go on to sweep many of the big categories at this year's Academy Awards. But let's not get too ahead of ourse...( read more)lves. "Precious", although impeccably acted, is a poorly-directed soap opera - a film that only succeeds in delivering clumsily-handled shocks. It's an exploitation of the senses, an overly-sentimental melodrama that's every bit as shamelessly manipulative as 2005's "Crash".
  
  Set in Harlem in 1987, "Precious" follows the struggle of an obese 16-year-old African-American girl named Claireece "Precious" Jones (Gabourney Sidibe). She's still in junior high school, pregnant with the second child by her father, and is ruthlessly abused at home by her wretched mother (Mo'Nique). Precious, although unable to read or write, excels in math and eventually finds an opportunity at an alternative school known as Each One Teach One. The inspirational teacher genre creeps up in this supposedly gritty melodrama, with the heavenly Ms. Rain (Paul Patton) patiently whipping her class into shape.
  
  Although the film is hyped as a poignant tale about an underprivileged young girl, it has nothing to do with race or class. It might, but the countless nihilistic narrative elements are so overbearing that it completely overshadows whatever the film may say about growing up as an African-American in 1980's Harlem. In the film: Precious is beaten, raped, impregnated, bullied, diagnosed with disease, and so on. It's violent, cynical, and so relentless in it's dread that I was numb by the end of it all.
  
  But the film's real problem is Lee Daniels' struggle to maintain any consistency with the material. He seems to be going for a sort of hyper-realism with a camera desperately in need of a tripod, but meanwhile there are such overbearing stylistic flourishes that it completely takes away from the gritty tone. The dream sequences feel shoddy and forced, painfully out-of-place and detrimental to the narrative momentum of the film. At one point, Precious and her mother appear in an Italian neorealist film. What this lazy, heartless pig is doing watching Vittorio de Sica is beyond me.
  
  Don't get me wrong - the film is hard to fully dismiss. As much as I resisted the film's exploitative tendencies, I was still taken aback by the brilliant performance of Mo'Nique. The final half hour, particularly a scene between Mo'Nique and a social worker played by the surprisingly great Mariah Carey, almost made me forgive every false note Daniels struck. While a few other performances didn't quite work (Paula Patton didn't do a thing for me), Mo'Nique's is as good as any i've seen this year.
  
  "Precious" is worth seeing for the acting, but make sure to lower your expectations considerably before entering the theater. The film is inconsistent, uneven in tone, and directed with a distracting pretension. I hate to think so negatively of a film that had so much going for it, but I found this material to be too manipulative to embrace with any sincerity.

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  November 23, 2009

  datbmoregurlkita

  I Loved it!!!!!!!!!!

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  November 23, 2009

  tracihandley

  This movie is very emotional. If you are not prepared to cry don't go see it!

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  November 23, 2009

  diveintooblivion

  critics have been raving so far. i'm interested to see what all the hype is about.

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  November 23, 2009

  Dracula787

  Lee Daniel?s film Precious is a movie that has been heavily hyped by a number of critical forces since its debut at this year?s Sundance film festival. In spite of all the good marks the film has been getting, the prospect of actually seeing the damn thing is something I?d been d...( read more)reading all year. There were a number of elements to this movie that had me apprehensions, chief among them being the movie?s title, which seems to set the movie up has some kind of kindergarten level self-esteem exercise about how everyone is ?special? and ?precious.? Even the film?s producers seem to be embraced by that title as evidenced by the awkward way they?ve been attaching ?based on the novel ?Push? by Sapphire? to the back of it every chance they get. The bigger force in making me dread this viewing experience is the film?s trailer, which sells the movie as exactly the kind of inspirational sappiness I was afraid it would be. The fact that Oprah Winfrey and Tyler Perry, two people who are hardly adverse to the saccharine, were attaching their names didn?t boost my confidence either. My one hope was that the last prestige movie I dreaded this much was Brokeback Mountain, which looked like pure cheese from the trailer featuring the trademark ?I can?t quit you? line, but that movie proved to be a extremely well done and expertly restrained work. Knowing how bad trailers can make certain movies look when they?re being sold to the public, I held out hope that this was just a case of problematic advertising, that this really was as good as all the buzz would have me believe. Trust me; I really wanted this to be good, but for the most part this proved to be a sad case of truth in advertising.
  
  The film centers on Claireece "Precious" Jones (Gabourey Sidibe), who goes by her middle name and who is in a really bad situation. She?s a sixteen year old living in a squalid Harlem apartment with her mentally and physically abusive mother (Mo?Nique), who gets all her income from welfare. Claireece is illiterate, she gave birth to a mentally disabled child after being raped by her own father, and now she?s pregnant again with another of her father?s children. So what is the point of focusing on someone who is in this bad of a situation. If the not-so-subtle naming of its main character, the ?inspirational? quote the movie opens on, its tagline (Life is hard. Life is short. Life is painful. Life is rich. Life is....Precious.) and its website URL (weareallprecious.com) are any indication; the hallmark card-like goal of this movie is to prove to its audience that everyone even, if they are in dire straits, is precious. This is a message in search of an audience to convince. Does anyone really think a person is any less ?precious? simply because they suffer in life? I find it rather insulting that the filmmakers feel the need to prove this to the audience to begin with. What?s worse I don?t think the film even follows its own mantra.
  
  Let?s think about all the problems that the filmmakers have saddled Caireece with. It obviously isn?t Caireece?s fault that her mother is abusive, her mother is also implicated as the source of Claireece?s problems in school, and her parents are also the cause of her pregnancies either by direct action (in the case of her father) or from failing to prevent the situation (in the case of her mother). Sapphire and screenwriter Geoffrey Fletcher have basically constructed a character who is completely blameless for the situation she?s in, every one of her problems are without a shadow of a doubt placed squarely on the shoulders of her screwed up family. This, too me, is the root weakness of this movie. It?s very easy to generate sympathy for someone who?s had all their problems thrust upon them, its simplistic. Had they decided to create a character that was in a situation like this because they themselves made some bad decisions in life, and then established them as someone who was ?precious? it would have made for a movie that was significantly more challenging, provocative, and true to life.
  
  As such, I found myself significantly more interested in Claireece?s deeply flawed mother than I was in the blameless martyr for whom the film is titled. But the film isn?t really interested in exploring this mother either, or in adding many nuances to her character. She?s basically as evil as Claireece is sympathetic. This mother is pretty much everything that Ronald Reagan had in his head when he coined the term ?welfare queen.? She?s a fat, lazy woman who spends all her days watching game shows except when she occasionally leaves in order to play ?the numbers.? She constantly abuses and discourages Claireece, threatening to beat her whenever she fails to do everything she?s told and actively preventing her from furthering her education. Later in the movie she proves to be such a moustache twirling villain as to actively insult and toss a baby. But let?s hold on a second. I thought everybody was supposed to be precious. Therefore, shouldn?t that make Claireece?s mother precious too. I don?t think the content of the movie would support that, it produces a pretty simple dichotomy of the blameless child and the evil mother. In essence this is a movie that has a great deal of sympathy for people who are born into bad situations, but very little sympathy for those who have created a bad situation for themselves. This rather conservative message is a fair enough point of view, but I find the film?s endless claims of having a compassionate and non-judgmental world view to be disingenuous.
  
  Putting all that aside, there are other elements that make this a pretty uncompelling movie going experience, and chief among them is a character named Blu Rain, played by Paula Patton, who is meant to be a thinly disguised version of the movie?s author (get it, sapphire, Blue Rain). This character is a teacher at an alternative education facility that Claireece is sent to, and this school storyline is easily the most clichéd and sappy element of the whole movie. This whole subplot basically turns this into one of those horrible movies about saint-like inspirational teachers trying desperately to reach a diverse group of ?inner-city? youths. There is almost nothing that separates the classroom elements here from garbage like Dangerous Minds, Stand and Deliver, and Freedom Writers. I had thought that this ridiculous trope had been shattered once and for all by Ryan Fleck?s excellent 2006 drama Half Nelson, and perhaps by the great fourth season of David Simon?s ?The Wire,? both works which have significantly more knowledge of the condition of underprivileged youths than this movie could ever dream of possessing. The ineptitude of this sub-plot is magnified by Paula Patton?s less than stellar performance which is well below the standard set by the rest of the cast. When this character says to Caireece: ?your daughter loves you, I love you? it?s every bit as TV-movie worthy as the trailer would have you believe.
  
  Fortunately, the rest of the acting in this movie is a lot better than the work Patton displays. In fact I?d probably say that the excellent performances of Gabourey Sidibe and Mo'Nique are damn near the film?s only redeeming qualities. Sidibe, an unknown, is quite a find and is perfect for her role. Many have made the mistake of thinking that she was simply an underprivileged young girl that the filmmakers found on the street and essentially cast as herself in the role, but this isn?t really the case, she?s an actress playing a role and she plays it really well. Mo?Nique is even more of a revelation in her role, like Jamie Foxx before her she?s a comedian who has broken out of the ?black comedy? ghetto to prove herself to be a great and forceful actor. These are both roles that require the two thespians to inhabit very foreign roles which require a whole lot of yelling and crying, the kind of roles that are easy to give awards to, but both Sidibe and Mo?Nique do their jobs effectively and I think it is their work that has primarily tricked a multitude of critics and pundits into thinking this movie is something more than it really is.
  
  I wish I could say that there was another element that matched the performances of these two actresses, but there really isn?t. I suppose some of the dialogue was pretty well written, at least outside of the Blu Rain sub-plot, but otherwise I found a lot of the filmmaking here subpar. Lee Daniels? direction here seems confused and inconsistent. On one hand Daniels, whose only previous directing credit is the critically lambasted Shadowboxer, seems to want to give the movie a gritty handheld look to match the material, but he undercuts this style at all points with a variety of visual tricks and devices that are at odds with this. The movie is filled with montages, scenes where video is superimposed onto walls, obnoxious fantasy sequences that go nowhere and signify almost nothing, and the occasional Arronofsy-esque quick cut montage. It feels like Daniels is trying to use every crayon in his box of tricks to seeing what sticks rather than simply letting the story play out, and this is all the more problematic simply because a lot of these tricks aren?t even overly well executed.
  
  There?s one great scene towards the end, a confrontation between Claireece and her mother, in which the two actresses are finally allowed to talk in detail without being interrupted by one of Lee Daniel?s stupid tricks. It?s probably the only scene in the movie where the mother is given a shred of complexity and the film?s style really accentuates the scene rather than interrupt it. This is like an isolated scene from a much better movie and if the rest of the material here had been on par with that scene this might have been something great. Instead this is a major missed opportunity filled with sappy material, a confused message, told by a confused filmmaker that has somehow hypnotized America?s critics into ignoring its numerous flaws.

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  November 23, 2009

  ejelynm

  very nice and interesting

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View more Precious: Based on the Novel Push by Sapphire reviews at RottenTomatoes.com

• 
  August 29, 2009

  atumusic

  I can't wait til it comes out. i will definitely be in line opening weekend. Hope it lives up to all the HYPE!
  
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• Gabourey 'Gabby' Sidibe
• Mo'Nique
• Paula Patton
• Mariah Carey
• Sherri Shepherd
• Lenny Kravitz

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