Yeah, seems like every time I turn around someone else is emailing me a bad Precious review. I get it, there is already awards fatigue and the films haven’t even opened yet. There is desperation in the air, no doubt about it, and there will continue to be until both shoes drop safely but firmly on the ground. Owen Gleiberman says this about Precious in his grade A review:
Precious comes to the attention of a welfare counselor, played by Mariah Carey with an authentically deglammed compassion, and once she’s in the class, she starts to wake up. These episodes aren’t the usual inspirational claptrap; they’re about troubled girls striving, and often failing, to turn themselves around. The more Precious tries to get away from her mother, the more she’s pulled back, and the final scene of revelation between them will leave you tearful, shaken, dazed with pity and terror. Precious captures how a lost girl rouses herself from the dead, and Daniels shows unflinching courage as a filmmaker by going this deep into the pathologies that may still linger in the closets of some impoverished inner-city lives. Precious is a film that makes you think, ”There but for the grace of God go I.” It’s a potent and moving experience, because by the end you feel you’ve witnessed nothing less than the birth of a soul.
So, here’s the deal, maybe if both Kenneth Turan and Manohla Dargis beat the film to a pulp it is still going to have a chance with Oscar – there are just some movies you don’t turn away from.
40 Responses for "EW’s Precious Rave"
When is Travis and Ebert going to post there raves
People actually email you bad reviews?
Peter and roger review will not be online until Thursday night but hear is what Roger said about the film at TIFF
http://blogs.suntimes.com/ebert/2009/09/tiff_11_and_the_winners_are.html
“Precious captures how a lost girl rouses herself from the dead, and Daniels shows unflinching courage as a filmmaker by going this deep into the pathologies that may still linger in the closets of some impoverished inner-city lives.”
Sounds a lot like the genius Season 4 of The Wire, except The Wire gave us the same view of the those circumstances from an almost exclusively teenage male perspective. If Precious can come with 10 blocks of the impact of The Wire then I’ll be happy.
I’ll bet Precious comes in as a solid critical fave when the year end top ten lists are compiled….. rank as high as #5 for the year.
I think Precious is a lock in terms of nomination. Winning the best picture??? I think it is too soon to say something
I heard this “Precious” backlash, too, from a reliable industry source…I personally LOVED it! It’s my life story. It’s EVERYBODY’S life story. But some people just can’t get past the black-than-blackness of it.
White people, can’t relate, I’m hearing. Or don’t want to. They don’t even want to give it a try.
Academy not watching it? Well, if I was nominating ten movies this would be the one of them FOR SURE.
I think this hurts the BP nom chances now…but I think Mo’Nique is impregnable(pardon the pun) and maybe this is gonna hurt Out Gay Black director Daniels and maybe Sidibe, too…Although she still may get in…
Some people who should know better are avoiding it. WHTIE people, again. White STRAIGHT people. The gays want to see this. And of course, the heroines(no pun intended this time) of the film are “STRAIGHT UP LESBIANS!” to quote a line from the film. And, oh yes, there’s THAT problem, too. This is actually a massively lesbian movie. Positive as hell. The lesbians and the educated heroes who also have a stable home life. LOVED THAT.
But the studios are whipping out Best Actress potential-ees at the last minute all over the place. I just saw “The Last Station” and if ever there was a scenery chew-ess to be nominated it’s Dame Helen Mirren as Tolstoy’s wronged wife..She won’t win AGAIN so soon with this one, but the Academy LOVES her and y’know to them, there’s nothing like a dame. And she gives it her ALL. And maybe TOO much. But it’s based on a real woman who really did overdress and over-act out IRL.
And then there’s Christopher Plummer, dying for like at least 45 mins. in a death bed scene the likes of which really would wring the Academy’s rafters. It’s like he was SCREAMING(sub-textually, of course) “GIVE ME AN OSCAR BEFORE I DIE G**DAMMIT!” And if he’s in Supporting for a lead performance of this ferocity he might just rain on Christophe Waltz’s parade.
At the screening I just attended, NOT an Academy screening, but a PRESS screening, it got APPLAUSE from the hardened NYC gathered ink stained wretches. That NEVER happens.
It seems like Plummer is channeling all his pent-up bitterness left over for DECADES from the “Sound of Mucous”(Sp?) as he always called it.
If they gave it to Alan Arking for dying in LMS, they could give it to Plummer for this, an obviously career-capping career award. And for his career, he certainly deserves it.
I saw his King Lear which was out of Canada’s great Stratford Shakespeare Festival, and he WAS monumental in a classic role in a fabulous production.
“The Last Station” is not that. But…well, there was that unexpected, spontaneous outburst of applause from the critics…SUDDENLY, “The Last Station” is a contender…But if Plummer goes lead, he won’t win.
Last I heard he was resisting Supporting…but perhaps Ryan and Sasha, you’ve heard more of an update.
I never expected this would be a contender on the way in, but on the way out, “The Last Station” saw its’ Oscar train arrive.
ugh, backlashes are SO boring.
anyone who emails a negative precious review really has too much time on their hands.
Ryan, shame shame for comparing this to The Wire
Haven’t seen Precious, Tyler, so all I can do is express a wish that parts of it might be as good as parts of The Wire. Of course there’s no way any movie can compare to the depth of a 13-episode arc (of the best TV series ever produced). Just saying that this description of Precious comes closer than any movie I can think of. I allow a 10-block radius because even moving into the same neighborhood would be impressive.
I don’t think these negative reviews will hurt its Best Pictures nomination chances, but they could keep Lee Daniels from being nominated for Best Director. I mean, when critics point out that some scenes were armaturish and poorly directed, you’re in trouble.
I want to see this film. But when I read something like “It’s my life story…it’s everybody’s life story,” I want to run away in the other direction (Note: I am not white).
Is A. O. Scott who already praised Precious on TV going to the write the Times review, not Darghis?
And it’s obvious if the film is getting raves and pans, this isn’t going to catch on with a majority, like Slumdog. But in a weak year for Best Picture, maybe that won’t stop Precious.
Why cant people email negative reviews to Sasha?
Shouldnt we know the whole story on a movie?
I wouldn’t be surprised if Lee Daniels didn’t get nominated.
The bad reviews I have read for precious so far are really kind of funny, and some of them are just plain dumb. How is a film going to be downed because it is the type of stuff that white ppl love, if that is not the dumbest thing i have ever heard in my life. If I was white I would be offended by the marginilization. Particulary Armond White’s piece of high-minded ,thesis-like trash is actually the kind of stuff another subset of white ppl like if u want to use that analogy. Mr. White compares Precious to Birth of a nation then lauds Mr. 3000, Norbit, Marci-X, and Next Day Air as credible black movies while criticizing Pursuit of Happyness and The Great Debaters. Oh I get it the good black movies are the ones that dont get oscars and that bad ones are the ones that do, thanks for tht armond u are a genius.
“Shouldnt we know the whole story on a movie?”
The whole story is available for anybody to see on rottontomatoes or metacritic.
We unusually try to stay pretty positive about the strongest contenders. Bad reviews are not going to kill them, but raves will tell us there are passionate supporters.
But mailing somebody bad news risks catching them at a bad time — when someone’s glee in sharing bad news might be a welcome as leaving a sack of poop by their front door
“Shouldnt we know the whole story on a movie?”
The whole story is available for anybody to see on rottontomatoes or metacritic. We usually try to stay pretty positive about the strongest contenders. A few bad reviews are not going to kill a movie, but raves will tell us there are passionate supporters.
But mailing somebody bad news risks catching them at a bad time — when someone’s glee in sharing bad news might be as welcome as leaving a sack of poop by their front door
and Hear is Roger Ebert 4 star RAVE. Salonalso gave it a great review.
http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20091104/REVIEWS/911059999
Hi Ryan!
“If Precious can come with 10 blocks of the impact of The Wire then I’ll be happy.”
I will be attacked for this I am sure. Season 4 of The Wire was my favourite. I loved it so much. For me ‘Precious’ was the same experience. Hope you enjoy it.
Agree with 15#. I read Armon White review. I haven’t seen “Precious” yet, but to compare the movie with “Birth of a Nation” is incredible. To called “Norbit” a good movie with black characters……. no comments.
White has a childish will to prove himself away from what he called hypes among films-buffs, and that everyone is wrong and he is right. With that, he praises a lot of crap just to point he is different.
“Precious captures how a lost girl rouses herself from the dead”
Lol, sounds slike Lovely Bones synopsis. If they nominated New Moon and Zombieland, we`d have the Oscar battle of people who rose from the dead literally (Edward Cullen&co,zombies, Susie Salmon) and figuratively (Clareece “Precious” Jones). Maybe the whole ceremony should be vampire-themed for vampires are all the rage now?
New Moon for Transformers upset in techs!
Cloe Moretz for Best Actress of 2010!
Why cant people email negative reviews to Sasha?
Shouldnt we know the whole story on a movie?
You absolutely can know the whole story and don’t you? Surely the readers who come here aren’t using AD exclusively. I know the negative reviews are out there on any movie – but if you notice, I don’t often post them unless it’s a Manohla Dargis/Kenneth Turan kind of thing. I find the readers here to be very sharp – way sharper than I am, for instance. I appreciate everything that’s being sent to me. I just felt like there was a need to tell me something I didn’t already know about Precious. I watch the reviews as carefully as you do and believe me, I know when a bad review of a movie has just come out.
If they continue to put Gabby Sidibe in conversations like they recently did with Katie Couric they will only up the chances for Precious. The interview was impressive and Gabby was impressive. That is what will catch the notice of the public and help to secure a wider audience. Keep Mo’nigue at bay and focus on Gabby. Mo’nique as a stand up has a tendency to be shrill where as Gabby came across as very intelligent. Let’s face facts none of us like someone screaming at us our minds turn it off, and I’m not referring to on film; I’m referring to interviews. Watching that interview turned my own opinion around regarding seeing Precious. I wrote that film off when Oprah started screaming and have to admit after listening to Gabby I was impressed enough to reconsider that.
“White people, can’t relate, I’m hearing. Or don’t want to” – Stephen Holt
And this is a novelty?
If Lee Daniels isn’t nominated for best director the film doesn’t have a chance of winning.
Off topic, but Roger Ebert and Owen Gleiberman of EW also just gave four stars to A Christmas Carol.
Precious is giving me a Wrestler vibe. Great film, but will more likely just score an acting nomination or two. Although with the 10 spots for Best Pic this year, it’s still seems a lock for a nomination.
I too thought the direction was poor and amateurish in parts, though the acting (particularly from MoNique) is brilliant. I’m glad to see the reviews are mixed.
Dude the reviews are mixed. 43 reviews on rt on only 6 Are bad. As a matter of fact there only 10 bad reviews for the movie total.
I’m glad to see the reviews are mixed.
Looking at RT. 40 Positive and only 6 nagative. That is no way mixed reviews. 92% COTC rating. 87 on BFCA
If you want to see mixed reviews look at A Christmas Carol and The Men who Stairs at Goats ratings.
What is COTC??? I have never heard of it! Such an amateur.
Cream of the Crop, Michael. It’s the top critics, such as A.O. Scott or Ebert, of rottentomatoes.com
Ahhhh. Oh, I did know that. So not good with acronyms. Thanks Chris
No prob.
This is for sure a BP nominee now that they have ten to pick from. I am sure if they were still only five that this would make it. Even though Dreamgirls failed to make the five a couple of years ago. This may be a nomination sweeper like The Color Purple was some 24 years ago. I see multiple nominees in acting categories. Could be the film to beat . I am not so sure about it’s box office though.
armond white called gabby sidibe a hippo.
Mid 70s now on Metacritic. Unlikely to dip much lower and could indeed rise to a low 80 with the next dozen or so reviews. Time for those who slagged MC in Precious’s defense to buy it a nice winter coat!
I hereby eat my hat in reference to my earlier prediction of 70. (Then again, maybe I should hold onto it one more day.)
Well, it got a really favorable review from the LA Times…Betsy Sharkey not Kenneth Turan. And NY Times. It’s hitting the key trades that AMPAS usually goes for just right.
I just wish this movie really grabbed me and left an afterthought, but it didn’t….esp. not like Slumdog did…In Slumdog, you could see the abject poverty those kids lived in and their fight for survival in some of the most degrading ways….but with Precious, when I left the theatre I left and didn’t think twice about the character — except to say (inwardly) there goes another struggling single-a** welfare mom….
Wow Sally, I’m so glad to hear that a movie as profound and deeply intellectual like SLumdog strongly moved you. You should watch some more Bollywood movies; you’ll be surprised by the depth of emotions you will be encounter.
“…glad to hear that a movie as profound and deeply intellectual like Slumdog strongly moved you.”
As with any poem, novel, song, painting or movie — it either moves us each as individuals, or it doesn’t. If it does, then we’re entitled to ask ourselves why and any reasons we find are valid territory to explore for whatever profound meanings and intellectual stimulation we get out of it.
To suggest that Bollywood movies are barren of any message or intellectual importance is as ignorant as saying the same thing about Hitchcock’s entire filmography or Film Noir classics — none of which were very respected intellectually until years after they served their original purpose as pure entertainment.
Some day, Afrika, we hope you can find a way to hype your own favorites without feeling compelled to spit on everything anybody else likes.
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