Mo’Nique

Mo’Nique Sets First Post-Oscar Role with BUMPED Starring Kellan Lutz

by Adam Chitwood    Posted: July 20th, 2011 at 10:24 am

After winning the Best Supporting Actress Oscar in 2009 for her role in Precious, it looks like Mo’Nique has settled on her first post-Academy Award role with the indie dramedy Bumped. Stephen Hereck (Mr. Holland’s Opus) is set to direct the story which revolves around “five strangers whose personal lives are revealed and changed during a layover in Chicago.” Variety reports that Mo’Nique joins a cast that includes Kellan Lutz (The Twilight Saga: Eclipse), Camilla Belle (10,000 B.C.), Katie Cassiday (Gossip Girl) Alex Gonzalez (X-Men: First Class), and Xenia Siamas. Lizzy Weiss (Blue Crush) wrote the script.

PRECIOUS DVD Review

by Sasha Tandlich    Posted: April 9th, 2010 at 7:27 am

Precious: Based on the Novel Push by Sapphire, is the multifaceted story of an overweight, illiterate Harlem teen pregnant with her second child. The film blends fantasy with reality in order to portray the methods Claireece “Precious” Jones uses to deal with abuse and poverty, among other things. The film has the right blend of humor to offset the seriousness, but attempts to tackle a plethora of issues, making it sometimes straddle the line of believability. More after the jump.

Matt’s Picks for the 82nd Annual Academy Awards

by Matt Goldberg    Posted: March 6th, 2010 at 9:50 pm

Sunday, March 7th will be the 82nd Academy Awards and it promises to be a fairly unspectacular one as far as horse-races go.  Three of the four acting categories are locked, the fourth is almost locked, and the only real competition is in the David vs. Goliath story of Kathryn Bigelow’s war action/drama The Hurt Locker vs. the spectacle of James Cameron’s Avatar.  Thankfully, that’s your Best Picture race and that’s where you’ll find the drama (not in the lame pre-constructed narrative that Bigelow and Cameron were briefly married over twenty years ago).

Hit the jump to check out my predictions and preferences for the winners in the categories of “Best Picture”, “Best Director”, “Best Actor”, “Best Actress”, “Best Supporting Actor”, and “Best Supporting Actress”.  I’ve also included a cheat-sheet at the end for all the other categories so if you don’t know who to put on your Oscar ballot at your party, put down my predictions and you’ll improve your odds.

PRECIOUS Has Huge Night at Independent Spirit Awards

by Keith Demko    Posted: March 6th, 2010 at 8:24 am

When the Oscars are finally handed out tomorrow night, Lee Daniels’ Precious: Based on the Novel Push By Sapphire will probably lose out to that band of blue horse cats or Bigelow’s bomb squad, but at the Independent Spirit Awards it pretty much rode to a complete sweep.

At Friday night’s ceremony hosted by comedian Eddie Izzard, Precious won five awards, including best feature, best lead actress for Gabourey Sidibe, best supporting actress for Mo’Nique, best director for Daniels and best first screenplay for Geoffrey Fletcher, all well deserved in this movie buff’s opinion. The only one likely to prevail on Sunday night is Mo’Nique, but we tune in to find out, right?

In other big categories, Oscar favorite Jeff Bridges took the best actor prize for his work as Bad Blake in Crazy Heart, and Woody Harrelson, who had a rather amazing year, took the best supporting actor prize for The Messenger. Hit the jump to hear what the winners had to say and to see a full list of the prizes handed out.

THE HURT LOCKER Wins 6 BAFTA Awards Including Best Picture

by Matt Goldberg    Posted: February 21st, 2010 at 9:34 pm

The British Academy of Film and Television Arts added momentum to The Hurt Locker awards train tonight as they award the film Best Picture, Best Director, Best Original Screenplay, Best Cinematography, Best Editing, and Best Sound.  Hurt Locker‘s awards in the technical categories are particularly interesting because perhaps Academy-thinking that usually awards those categories to the big blockbuster movies, i.e. Avatar.  But perhaps BAFTA and Oscar voters on the same wavelength and despite the massive box office of Cameron’s tech demo, the Academy could recognize the impressive editing, sound, and achievement in other technical categories (although Avatar won the BAFTA for best visual effects and it’s a lock to win the Oscar in that category as well).

Other nice victories included Colin Firth for Best Actor (A Serious Man), Carey Mulligan for Best Actress (An Education), and my personal favorite: Outstanding British Debut to Duncan Jones for Moon.  He gave a very sweet acceptance speech and I’ve included video of it after the jump along with the full list of winners.

16th Annual SAG Awards Honor INGLOURIOUS BASTERDS and STAR TREK Among Others

by Brendan Bettinger    Posted: January 24th, 2010 at 1:07 am

The Screen Actors Guild cast their votes for the best performances of 2009, and the results were announced on Saturday night.  Virtual Oscar locks Christoph Waltz and Mo’Nique were honored for their supporting turns in Inglourious Basterds and Precious, respectively.  Golden Globe winner Jeff Bridges repeated here for his lauded role in Crazy Heart.  Sandra Bullock took home the award for best female lead in The Blind Side, adding some drama to what is now ostensibly two-horse race between her and Meryll Streep for the Oscar.  Poor Carey Mulligan.

On the TV side, critical darlings 30 Rock and Mad Men took home three awards: the duo of Alec Baldwin and Tina Fey swept the lead comedy awards, while Mad Men was deemed to be television’s best drama ensemble.  Michael C. Hall, fresh off a Golden Globe win, won for being the only great part of Dexter.  Freshman shows also found some love, as the youthful cast of Glee is the SAG’s favorite comedy ensemble, and Juliana Marguiles turned some heads with a starring role on The Good Wife.

Hit the jump for the full list, which also includes wins for Star Trek, 24, Kevin Bacon, and Drew Barrymore.

Matt’s Top Performers, Director, Quotes, and Kills of 2009

by Matt Goldberg    Posted: December 30th, 2009 at 6:38 pm

The joy of list-making continues today as I’m running down who I thought gave the best performances of the year plus what I thought were the best quotes and kills of 2009.  Please keep in mind that regarding the performances, I haven’t seen a few key films that could have very well changed the winners and runners-up: Crazy Heart (Best Actor), The Last Station and Bright Star (Best Actress), and a few others.  If you think there was someone who clearly should’ve won or been nominated, shout out in the comments section and I’ll let you know whether I saw the film or not.

With this disclaimer out of the way, I present to you my picks for the best performers, directors, quotes, and kills of 2009.  Hit the jump to check them all out.

San Francisco Film Critics Circle Helps THE HURT LOCKER Continue Its Winning Streak

by Ramses Flores    Posted: December 15th, 2009 at 9:54 am

Kathryn Bigelow’s The Hurt Locker won best picture and best director again today at the San Francisco Film Critics Circle (SFFCC) awards. The film has already been awarded with both honors by critics in New York, Los Angeles, and Boston.  Meanwhile, the Southeastern Film Critics Association did not give the film best picture, but did award best director to Bigelow.  I really hope that these are all signs that Bigelow will be the first female to win best director come Oscar time.

Other SFFCC winners included Colin Firth for best actor in A Single Man, Meryl Streep for best actress in Julie & Julia, Mo’Nique for best supporting actress in Precious, Christian McKay pulling a surprise win for best supporting actor in Me and Orson Welles, and Quentin Tarantino winning best original screenplay for Inglourious Basterds while Wes Anderson and Noah Baumbach  received the award for best adapted screenplay for Fantastic Mr. Fox.

The full list of winners are after the jump.

The New York Film Critics Circle Opens Up THE HURT LOCKER as Best Film of 2009

by Matt Goldberg    Posted: December 14th, 2009 at 11:47 am

Is it too soon to say that The Hurt Locker is the film to beat in 2009?  After being named film of the year by the LAFCA and the BSFC, the New York Film Critics Circle (NYFCC) has added another accolade to Kathryn Bigelow’s intense war drama.  Bigelow herself also took yet another win for Best Director, while Christoph Waltz and Mo’Nique each took home another accolade for Best Supporting Actor (Inglourious Basterds) and Best Supporting Actress (Precious), respectively.  George Clooney was named Best Actor for his performances in Up in the Air and Fantastic Mr. Fox, which is impressive considering the latter is only a vocal performance.  Speaking of Fox, the film pulled another surprise upset by taking Best Animated Film over Pixar’s Up following yesterday’s announcement that LAFCA chose Anderson’s stop-mo flick over Pete Docter’s delightful 3D adventure.

Hit the jump for the full list of winners.

THE HURT LOCKER Sweeps Boston Society of Film Critics Awards

by Matt Goldberg    Posted: December 13th, 2009 at 7:04 pm

Taking another step forward in the 2009 Oscar race, Kathryn Bigelow’s The Hurt Locker picked up Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor (Jeremy Renner), Best Cinematography, and Best Editing from the Boston Society of Film Critics (BSFC) today.  As we reported earlier, Hurt Locker also took Best Picture and Best Director from the Los Angeles Film Critics Association. Also, like LAFCA, BSFC awarded Christoph Waltz for Best Supporting Actor (Inglourious Basterds) and Mo’Nique for Best Supporting Acress (Precious).

Hit the jump for the complete list of the winners.

Los Angeles Film Critics Association Names THE HURT LOCKER as Their Best Picture of the Year

by Matt Goldberg    Posted: December 13th, 2009 at 6:07 pm

The major critics groups are beginning to make their voices heard for what they think are the best films of 2009.  Today, the Los Angeles Film Critics Association (LAFCA) named Kathryn Bigelow’s The Hurt Locker as their top film of 2009, with Up in the Air as their runner-up.  Bigelow also won for Best Director and the film was runner-up for Best Cinematography.

Other big winners include Jeff Bridges (Crazy Heart) for Best Actor, Yolande Moreau (Séraphine) for Best Actress, Christoph Waltz (Inglourious Basterds) for Best Supporting Actor, and Mo’Nique (Precious) for Best Supporting Actress.  There was also an interesting upset in the animation category with Fantastic Mr. Fox being named the Best Animated Film and Up taking the runner-up category, and Carey Mulligan landing the runner-up victory for Best Actress.

Hit the jump for the full list of winners.

PRECIOUS – BASED ON THE NOVEL “PUSH” BY SAPPHIRE Review

by Matt Goldberg    Posted: November 5th, 2009 at 7:49 pm

In the movie “Precious: Based on the Novel “Push” by Sapphire”, an obese black girl growing up in 80s Harlem is beaten and verbally abused by her selfish mother.  The girl is pregnant with her second child after being raped again by her father.  Still hopeful for a better life, the girl enrolls in a program that teaches wayward young women to get their G.E.D.  Through the help of a saintly teacher and the support of her classmates, the girl finds confidence and love.  The movie co-stars comedienne Mo’Nique, pop sensation Mariah Carey, and cross-genre musician Lenny Kravitz.

“Precious” is not a Hallmark movie.  It is one of the best films of the year.

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