Precious: Based on the Novel “Push” by Sapphire

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.

Gabourey Sidibe Joins Laura Linney in Showtime’s THE BIG C

by Keith Demko    Posted: March 9th, 2010 at 12:05 pm

She may have lost out to Sandra Bullock at Sunday night’s Oscars, but Precious: Based on the Novel Push by Sapphire star Gabourey Sidibe isn’t wasting too much time worrying about it. She’s already moving on to her next project, this time on the small screen with Showtime.

The new dark comedy The Big C will star Laura Linney as a suburban wife and mother who is diagnosed with cancer, and Sidibe will play one of the students at the high school where she teaches. It will begin shooting its 13-episode season in May and will air at the end of summer.

HBO may be piling up the A-list directors, but count this as a real coup for Showtime, signing one my favorite actresses with Linney and now quickly-rising star Sidibe in what should make for a twistedly-funny show. [ET Online via The Playlist]

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.

PRECIOUS Director Lee Daniels to Bloom New Project for HBO

by Keith Demko    Posted: March 3rd, 2010 at 7:11 am

Apparently determined to scoop up every great director working today, HBO has now added Precious: Based on the Novel Push by Sapphire director Lee Daniels to a roster that already includes Martin Scorsese, Kathryn Bigelow and Michael Mann in developing new series for the channel.

Daniels is teaming up with author Amy Bloom to develop an as-yet-untitled series about a multigenerational, multiracial family in Philadelphia. Daniels will direct at least the pilot, and they both will serve as executive producers if this goes to series (anyone wanna bet against that?)

Let’s see … that makes Martin Scorsese developing Boardwalk Empire for Steve Buscemi to star in; Michael Mann and Deadwood creator David Milch teaming up for Luck, to somehow star Dustin Hoffman; Kathryn Bigelow and Broadway producer John Logan collaborating on The Miraculous Year, about one year in the life of a charismatic Broadway producer and his family; The Wire creator David Simon returning very soon with Treme, his post-Katrina New Orleans series, and now Daniels, Yeah, I think you could say HBO is on a roll.

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.

BAFTA Nominees Announced; AVATAR, THE HURT LOCKER, and AN EDUCATION Lead with 8 Nominations

by Matt Goldberg    Posted: January 21st, 2010 at 8:11 am

The Brits certainly like our flicks with Avatar and The Hurt Locker scoring eight nominations each from the British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA).  However, they didn’t overlook one of their own accomplished films with An Education also grabbing eight nominations.  But what’s really impressive about the BAFTA nominations isn’t where they’ll most likely overlap with the Oscar nominations, but where they’re going to diverge.  District 9 has seven nominations and matches Avatar in every category except Best Picture and Best Director (but it also has a Best Screenplay nomination, while Avatar does not).  I am a little surprised that in their Best Supporting Actor category, they overlooked Peter Capaldi for In the Loop, but you have to love a country where Andy Serkis can get nominated for Best Actor (that’s not meant ironically; it truly is great–we should’ve nominated him in 2002 for Best Supporting Actor for The Two Towers).

Hit the jump for the full list of nominees.  Winners will be announced on February 21st.

A Good Year for Directors Who Aren’t Straight White Men

by Brendan Bettinger    Posted: December 30th, 2009 at 11:07 pm

The position of director has long been dominated by heterosexual, Caucasian males in Hollywood. For evidence of this, one need only look at the Academy Award for Best Director nominations over first 81 years of the award’s existence. Only three times have female directors received nominations (Lina Wertmüller in 1976, Jane Campion in 1993, and Sofia Coppola in 2003) and only once has an African-American director been nominated (John Singleton in 1991). Homosexual directors have had more luck, with such notable openly gay directors as Rob Marshall, Gus Van Sant, and Pedro Almodovar gaining nominations, while John Schlesinger and George Cukor even won the award. Still, directing in Hollywood is not a particularly diverse game. So it is noteworthy when, as Variety points out, “it’s possible the best-director noms might not include a single English-speaking, Caucasian, straight male”.

For a look at the directors who might instead seize this year’s Oscar nominations, including Kathryn Bigelow, Lee Daniels, Tom Ford, Lone Scherfig, and Rob Marshall, hit the jump.

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.

2009 Spirit Award Nominees

by Matt Goldberg    Posted: December 1st, 2009 at 10:47 am

Film Independent’s Spirit Awards are meant to honor “indie” films, i.e. no blockbuster movies allowed but if you played at some festivals and didn’t cost a lot of money, you’re in consideration.  The Spirit Awards are a good indicator of what smaller films could be getting a shot at Oscar nominations in various categories.  Usually, their nominees are pretty solid and play like a nice alternative universe where the Oscars went to more deserving nominees (last year The Wrestler won Best Film and Best Actor).

But this year’s choices are obvious mixed with disappointingly bizarre.  In a year where some strong, hard-sell films came out of Sundance with strong buzz, the Spirit Awards have instead shown love to movies like Two Lovers, Cold Souls, and (500) Days of Summer.  It’s not that any of these films are resoundingly bad, but when placed alongside obvious contenders like Precious and A Single Man, it feels like Film Independent (who chooses the nominees) were struggling to fill all the nomination slots.  It’s even more bizarre for what you won’t find: Colin Firth for A Single Man; any nominations for A Serious Man beyond cinematography, direction, and the Robert Altman Award; and a Best Director nomination for Marc Webb just to name a few.  Hit the jump for the full list of nominees.  The 2009 Independent Spirit Awards will air on March 5, 2010 at 8pm PST on IFC.’

PRECIOUS Director Lee Daniels Tackling Civil Rights with SELMA

by Michael Sullivan    Posted: November 17th, 2009 at 9:39 pm

Lee Daniels, the expert director of this year’s likely Oscar-contender Precious: Based on the Novel “Push” by Sapphire , is in advanced negotiations to direct Selma, a piece about the 1965 march in Alabama that marked “the political and emotional peak of the civil rights movement.” Christian Colson of Slumdog Millionaire fame and Pathé U.K. are set to produce.  Hit the jump for more details and my brief thoughts on Precious.

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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