Precious
Nothing can beat hope out of you – it just beats it way, way down.
Last weekend I took my friend, Mica, to see Precious: Based on the Novel Push By Sapphire for her birthday.* Let me tell you, nothing says “Happy Birthday” like watching an abused 16-year-old girl give birth to her father’s baby, and then seeing her mother throw that baby on the floor. Yay! Blow out the candles!
Holly shit, you guys – this movie. It did not mess around. If there was an Oscar for making beautiful people horribly ugly, Precious would win hands down. Oh wait, there is, it’s called Best Actress – and Mo’Nique has that shit TIED UP. When you see Precious – and you will, because Oprah says so – the thought that will run through your mind most often is a simple “What the fuck?!?!” The kind of “WTF?!” that one might ask after being, say, hit in the face with a hammer, or shitting a baby. Something along those lines. Again – happy birthday, Mica.
The cast, and the casting, was amazing – largely because nobody wore make-up. Mariah Carey as a bitter social worker? Yes please. Lenny Kravitz as a new-agey male nurse? Don’t mind if I do. Sherri Shepherd as the funniest thing in the movie? More! (To be honest, they uglified Sherri Shepherd so much it took me 2 days to realize she was in the movie at all, but she was great.) I feel like I need to see it again to figure out if the sum of the movie is greater than it’s celebrity cameo parts. It was like watching a CGI movie and wondering how they did it – “Mariah Carey is so convincing! I wonder how many people it took to animate her?”
But basically, if you like great gritty performances and emotionally punishing movies, then you will love Precious. Me? I do, I did. I want to meet Mo’Nique EVEN MORE now, just so I can shake my head and stare at her.
*Yes, that is seriously the title, so everyone needs to get over Tyler Perry putting his name on his titles. At least he doesn’t put :Based on an Idea That Tyler Perry Had And Then Wrote Into A Play Of The Same Name after his titles, but it’s the same idea – “Look! Here is that thing you liked! Tyler Perry/The Novel Push By Sapphire!”
October 22nd, 2009 at 2:29 pm
It totally topped the birthday when we went to see Schindler’s List!
This movie is awesome on so many levels. It was disturbing and harsh but also really funny and yes, the celebrity-sans-makeup factor alone should drive you to see it. thinking back on it I have this feeling like I want to hug it, the movie. is that weird?
October 22nd, 2009 at 2:32 pm
Tyler Perry was executive producer though right?
October 22nd, 2009 at 2:35 pm
Yes, Evan, he is – as is Oprah. But the movie was already finished when they came on. Tyler Perry saw a screening of it and told Oprah about it – they are helping it get all the distribution and festival stuff movies need to live after they’ve been shot. I guess.
October 22nd, 2009 at 5:02 pm
It looks amazing, but am I going to want to kill myself afterward? I nearly had to be hospitalized after My Dog Skip.
October 23rd, 2009 at 2:30 pm
holy crap, that looks more brutal than a cannibal corpse show
October 24th, 2009 at 4:53 pm
Yeah, did you know that Tyler Perry is also not only putting his name on but directing a film version of Ntozake Shange’s feminist choreo-poem? With Halle Berry and Jill Scott, no less.
Should the same guy who plays Medea be in charge of a piece called “for colored girls who have considered suicide when the rainbow is enuf”? I wonder what Oprah thinks about that.
Can’t wait to see Precious. Can’t wait to live in New York so I can actually see your show…
October 25th, 2009 at 11:32 am
The preview has been playing here for months (and that was already tough to watch)… I’m wondering if it will actually make it to a theatah way down heah.
October 27th, 2009 at 1:32 pm
I’ll check it out. I’ve been feeling happy about life lately.
Maybe I’ll do an “In the Bedroom” / “House of Sand and Fog” / “last couple episodes of Season 4 of The Wire” / “Precious” marathon.