This Movie Finds You
Added 3/20/2010
This is actually difficult to explain, but "Precious" is a surpassingly fantastic movie.
It is also a difficult movie. I hated the first 1/2 hour - almost viscerally. This is a loser world; these are losers - LOSERS, and the "mom" - wow! She is the lowest ever. Almost everything about this whole world is breathtakingly bleak and repulsive and unfixable.
But this movie really does something fantastic - it takes your mind and carefully brings you into a deeper thicket of humanness. I don't even remember how it happened. But it really did and it is an unexpected and unusual surprise.
Oh, and if you know anyone who has any "mom" issues, this movie will touch that base.
(one final note - Mariah Carey has a role and she is perfect - blew me away; didn't know it was her until the credits.)
0 out of 0 people found this helpful.
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The story inside the story
Added 3/18/2010
The utmost value of an education is the story within the story that is Precious. Without the teacher in this story, Precious most likely would have gone the way of her mother (Precious reveals her volatile nature a number of times in the film). A common conception is that daughters become their mothers, sons their fathers. A girl's childhood is imprinted by her mother in creating a blueprint of herself. Education in this story--directly charged by one teacher--changed this story to a different one--that of renewal, revision, revival, redemption. Re means again. New again. Changed (revised), redeemed or salvaged or blood bought--in this case through the intellectual and emotional blood of the teacher.
By this time the story of Precious, if not viewed first person, is known through print, video news, or word of mouth. I have nothing new to add to that and concur with all the critical acclaim. However, it's the story inside the story that makes "Precious," both the film and the story work. A vibrant, fairly young teacher, Blu Rain, finds herself, having chosen the Reach One, Teach One program as her bailiwick, facing a new class in this alternative program for hard-to-teach/reach teenage girls. One girl is unusually repressed, a big, hulking girl trying to shrink herself both physically and emotionally.
The viewer already knows this girl--Clareece Precious Jones--as physically and emotionally abused by her mother and sexually by her father. In fact, the story opens with the revelation that Precious is pregnant a second time by her father. Precious is virtually illiterate and has been passed on by teachers obviously grateful to Precious because she causes no classroom problems. Her mother tells her she is too stupid to learn as is her mongoloid daughter. Mo'Nique as the mother definitely earned her Academy Award as Supporting Actress in a viscerally biting performance.
So into the alternative program Precious goes, despite her mother's demand that Precious apply for welfare. That's where this young teacher makes a difference. She has her girls write every day, knowing the rewards and advantages of writing. Much later when Precious announces really bad news and screams that she doesn't want to write, this teacher insists: "Write it down!" "Write about it!" Why be so insistent?
That's where I come in. As a high school English teacher who knows first hand about writing, I can say what writing does. In no particular order:
1. It clarifies thinking, which can be muddled without the direction of writing. Thoughts on paper become more concrete and accessible and easier to organize. It opens doors to new thought.
2. It can aid in decision making. How often does a therapist advise a patient to write down pros and cons of a situation? Seeing them in print clarifies (as stated in number one) but also defines.
3. It is purgative. Studies show that prison inmates who keep journals can purge themselves of negative and hostile thinking. I'm sure the teacher had this in mind in insisting, almost demanding that Precious write at that moment.
4. It is reflective. How can one grow and go forward without reflecting on where one has been?
5. It opens a path into a more creative direction, including first considering life's possibilities, then pursuing them. The term is FLOW.
Other studies show that abused children can succeed beyond wildest expectations, but at what price? Precious has consciously made the decision to be more than she is, doggedly pursues this goal despite the horrors of her life, and eventually breaks ties with the past, the absolutely wisest choice for her own growth of mental acuity and emotional strength.
Behind all of Precious's resolve and pursuit stands Blu Rain as the catalyst, the initiating force of the story inside the story that is Precious. A cheer for all dedicated teachers everywhere! And may Precious reach her potential!
1 out of 2 people found this helpful.
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Powerful Film! this is what Filmaking Should Be
Added 3/18/2010
watching this movie evoked many moments of sympathy, distain, laughter, and disbelief. at the end it changed my perception of life and what many others have to face. there are mo face any children like precious
who often face horrible abusive situations at home are helped with social programs but more often than not they are even more abused by a system that pushes them out of the public school system and railroads them into the prison system.the actors in this film gave powerful performances. the monolgue monique gave to the social worker made me hold my head and shout. this was an excellent movie and im glad oprah winfrey and tyler perry backed it. my only critzism was that there could have been more strong positive male role models than just the doctor. like the color purple the movie paints black men as sexually abusive predators. and there are many good black fathers even some single parent fathers, who raise well adjusted children. in the wake of the many senseless, glossed over, cgi remakes that we've seen in the past, this movie has depth "precious" is definatly one to see and own.
1 out of 2 people found this helpful.
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An Instant African-American Classic
Added 3/17/2010
"Shadowboxer" director Lee Daniels deserves every award and honor that Hollywood and critics around the world can bestow on him for his electrifying African-American social problem film "Precious: Based on the Novel Push by Sapphire" that casts newcomer Gabourey Sidibe as the troubled heroine. This R-rated, 110-minute urban nightmare probably could not have been made without the help of both Oprah Winfrey and Tyler Perry. You can just imagine what derisive comments greeted this venture when the filmmakers pitched their idea about a theatrical release chronicling a year in the life of an abused obese soul sister. Who would want to suffer through a thoroughly depressing, often offensive movie about a big fat loser trapped in the ghetto? Indeed, when you watch the trailer for this film, you want to suppress a laugh because everything is so hideously horrifying about this poor girl's hopeless existence. She puts up with an incredibly monstrous mother who treats her as if she were own personal slave. Nevertheless, despite its uncompromising subject matter, "Precious" qualifies as an inspiring film that doesn't rely on sugar-coating and a happy ending. Sapphire wrote her 1996 novel "Push" in first-person and adopted a rough, stylized dialect to enhance its verisimilitude. Reportedly, "Push" was Sapphire's homage to "The Color Purple." Ostensibly, Lionsgate--the company that is distributing the Daniels film changed the title from "Push" to "Precious" to avoid any confusion between this powerful film and the lackluster Chris Evans & Dakota Fanning science fiction epic "Push" (2009).
"Precious" depicts in semi-documentary fashion the plight of an illiterate, grotesquely overweight 16-year old Harlem girl poised to give birth to her second child. Ironically, Claireece 'Precious' Jones (newcomer Gabourey Sidibe) has never had a boyfriend. Incidentally, her first child is a four-year-old girl afflicted with Down's syndrome, and her tyrannical, potty-mouthed mother Mary (Mo'Nique of "Soul Plane") despises the adolescent and forces her mother to keep her. At school, Precious' classmates ridicule her Buddha-like physique, but she maintains a stoic imperturbability and ignores their insults. Meanwhile, Mary lets her incestuous boyfriend (Rodney Bear Jackson) rape her daughter while she stands in the background and observes this act of child abuse. No, there is no nudity in these harrowing scenes, but the content may be disturbing enough to alienate some audiences. In fact, Mary has allowed her out-of-control boyfriend to take advantage of Precious since the girl was three years old and mother and daughter shared the same bed with him. As the film unspools, Precious finds herself expelled from her high school because she is pregnant. The conscientious school principal arranges for Precious to attend an alternative school called Each One Teach One where drop-outs go to earn their GED. Precious learns to read and write under the tutelage of her instructor Blu Rain (Paula Patton of "Hitch"), a dedicated but kind teacher who inspires Precious to keep a journal about her life. Meantime, Mary never misses an opportunity to insult, torment, and batter her obsequious daughter. Precious takes everything that her wicked mother can dish out until she comes home with her infant son Abdul. Mary knocks Abdul out of her arms and begins to batter her daughter. Precious fights back, seizes her baby and flees. Precious is in such a hurry that she loses her footing and topples down the stairs. Meanwhile, mom lugs her portable TV outside and hurls it at her daughter. The television barely misses Precious and crashes into a million pieces. Eventually, after Precious has her son, she decides to left her impossible mother and goes to stay with Ms. Patton. If all this drama weren't enough, Precious learns from her mother that her father had contracted the AIDS virus. A brave social worker Mrs. Weiss (pop singer Mariah Carey deglamorized without make-up) helps Precious escape the abuse that her villainous mother doles out with a vengeance. Sure, this sounds as depressing as you can imagine because there is nothing far-fetched about it.
"Precious" ranks as a compelling as well as gripping cinematic experience with kitchen-sink realism about intolerance. What takes "Precious" to another level of celluloid sophistication is that Daniels takes us into the head of his protagonist, and we see everything from Precious' perspective in terms of her dreams and aspirations. She yearns to have a light-skinned boyfriend, beautiful clothes, and fame. Daniels delivers some incredibly surreal moments. We see Precious' thoughts turned into a movie that she is watching on television, Vittorio De Sica's "Two Women," about Italian refugees during World War II that adds another dimension to her wretched predicament. Apparently, Mary forced Precious to eat food even when she was not hungry. This abuse is alluded to in the movie as Precious sees it from her warped perspective. Another extraordinary scene occurs in Precious' bedroom as she is applying her make-up. The image reflected in the mirror is of a blond poster girl that occupies space on her wall. This ironic poster captures the escapist fantasies that fuel Precious's life and she falls back on to evade the constant harassment of her mother and her ugly physical environment. Musician Lenny Kravitz has a supporting role as Nurse John who takes care of Precious while she is in the hospital. Movies about social workers and the victims of parental abuse will never be the same after "Precious." Who would have thought that such an unrelentingly dire story with a first-time would have the sledgehammer impact that it delivers!
1 out of 2 people found this helpful.
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Strange feelings about this one. It really is not a pleasant movie and it actually started to make us feel depressed about half-way through. I also have to wonder that if this film was made by white film-makers, it would be called racist. Mo'nique was good, but is that the kind of character that anyone wants to play? I mean, the movies biggest flaw is that with all the negative actions and stereotypes on screen, there is no real call-to-arms to change things. Maybe as an afterschool special that provided Abuse Hot Line numbers or Welfare Fraud statistics it would have felt more worthwhile.
1 out of 1 people found this helpful.
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This Movie Finds You
Added 3/20/2010
This is actually difficult to explain, but "Precious" is a surpassingly fantastic movie.
It is also a difficult movie. I hated the first 1/2 hour - almost viscerally. This is a loser world; these are losers - LOSERS, and the "mom" - wow! She is the lowest ever. Almost everything about this whole world is breathtakingly bleak and repulsive and unfixable.
But this movie really does something fantastic - it takes your mind and carefully brings you into a deeper thicket of humanness. I don't even remember how it happened. But it really did and it is an unexpected and unusual surprise.
Oh, and if you know anyone who has any "mom" issues, this movie will touch that base.
(one final note - Mariah Carey has a role and she is perfect - blew me away; didn't know it was her until the credits.)
0 out of 0 people found this helpful.
|
The story inside the story
Added 3/18/2010
The utmost value of an education is the story within the story that is Precious. Without the teacher in this story, Precious most likely would have gone the way of her mother (Precious reveals her volatile nature a number of times in the film). A common conception is that daughters become their mothers, sons their fathers. A girl's childhood is imprinted by her mother in creating a blueprint of herself. Education in this story--directly charged by one teacher--changed this story to a different one--that of renewal, revision, revival, redemption. Re means again. New again. Changed (revised), redeemed or salvaged or blood bought--in this case through the intellectual and emotional blood of the teacher.
By this time the story of Precious, if not viewed first person, is known through print, video news, or word of mouth. I have nothing new to add to that and concur with all the critical acclaim. However, it's the story inside the story that makes "Precious," both the film and the story work. A vibrant, fairly young teacher, Blu Rain, finds herself, having chosen the Reach One, Teach One program as her bailiwick, facing a new class in this alternative program for hard-to-teach/reach teenage girls. One girl is unusually repressed, a big, hulking girl trying to shrink herself both physically and emotionally.
The viewer already knows this girl--Clareece Precious Jones--as physically and emotionally abused by her mother and sexually by her father. In fact, the story opens with the revelation that Precious is pregnant a second time by her father. Precious is virtually illiterate and has been passed on by teachers obviously grateful to Precious because she causes no classroom problems. Her mother tells her she is too stupid to learn as is her mongoloid daughter. Mo'Nique as the mother definitely earned her Academy Award as Supporting Actress in a viscerally biting performance.
So into the alternative program Precious goes, despite her mother's demand that Precious apply for welfare. That's where this young teacher makes a difference. She has her girls write every day, knowing the rewards and advantages of writing. Much later when Precious announces really bad news and screams that she doesn't want to write, this teacher insists: "Write it down!" "Write about it!" Why be so insistent?
That's where I come in. As a high school English teacher who knows first hand about writing, I can say what writing does. In no particular order:
1. It clarifies thinking, which can be muddled without the direction of writing. Thoughts on paper become more concrete and accessible and easier to organize. It opens doors to new thought.
2. It can aid in decision making. How often does a therapist advise a patient to write down pros and cons of a situation? Seeing them in print clarifies (as stated in number one) but also defines.
3. It is purgative. Studies show that prison inmates who keep journals can purge themselves of negative and hostile thinking. I'm sure the teacher had this in mind in insisting, almost demanding that Precious write at that moment.
4. It is reflective. How can one grow and go forward without reflecting on where one has been?
5. It opens a path into a more creative direction, including first considering life's possibilities, then pursuing them. The term is FLOW.
Other studies show that abused children can succeed beyond wildest expectations, but at what price? Precious has consciously made the decision to be more than she is, doggedly pursues this goal despite the horrors of her life, and eventually breaks ties with the past, the absolutely wisest choice for her own growth of mental acuity and emotional strength.
Behind all of Precious's resolve and pursuit stands Blu Rain as the catalyst, the initiating force of the story inside the story that is Precious. A cheer for all dedicated teachers everywhere! And may Precious reach her potential!
1 out of 2 people found this helpful.
|
Powerful Film! this is what Filmaking Should Be
Added 3/18/2010
watching this movie evoked many moments of sympathy, distain, laughter, and disbelief. at the end it changed my perception of life and what many others have to face. there are mo face any children like precious
who often face horrible abusive situations at home are helped with social programs but more often than not they are even more abused by a system that pushes them out of the public school system and railroads them into the prison system.the actors in this film gave powerful performances. the monolgue monique gave to the social worker made me hold my head and shout. this was an excellent movie and im glad oprah winfrey and tyler perry backed it. my only critzism was that there could have been more strong positive male role models than just the doctor. like the color purple the movie paints black men as sexually abusive predators. and there are many good black fathers even some single parent fathers, who raise well adjusted children. in the wake of the many senseless, glossed over, cgi remakes that we've seen in the past, this movie has depth "precious" is definatly one to see and own.
1 out of 2 people found this helpful.
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