When I saw Precious and that last scene with Monique, I said: “Bitch just won an Oscar!”. I said it with love. I love Mo’Nique and I loved to hate her in Precious. But Mo’Nique didn’t look so sure. Did you see her on Barbara Walter’s last ever Oscar Special? Did you see her on the Red Carpet? She’s had an intensity in her eyes. Like she’s been holding her breath too long and “thinking positively” far too hard. Hell, she probably has Ekhart Tolle’s New Earth on tape in the car AND on her iPhone. But there’s no guarantee. There’s no secret formula for winning an Oscar. Remember Oprah and Whoopie AND The Color Purple? Thank God Whoopie won for Ghost is all I’m saying. But I digress.
It’s the Gay-D-D.
Back to Mo’Nique. Did you see her before they called her name? She looked worried. She looked like if they didn’t call her name she was going to have to cut a bitch. All the other nominees were whiter and thinner and Mo’Nique wasn’t gonna play dat! When they did say her name did you see her reaction? She let out that deep breath and closed her eyes as if to say “You just saved a white bitch’s life tonight.”. See? The Oscars does save lives. Take that Cancer research!

Last night, I treated myself to a pre MLT weekend night out at the movies by myself. Anyone who remembers the episode of Sex and the City where Carrie goes to the movies by herself on movie night can imagine my much gayer and somewhat low rent version of this. Just me and Telus Tuesdays at the Scotiabank Theatre (11.65$ gets you a big thing of popcorn, a pop and an adult ticket). No I wasn’t there to oggle shirtless jailbait werewolves, I was there for one of the year’s most talked about films.

Precious – Based on the novel Push by Saphire, the story of a young woman facing unimaginable odds in 1980s Harlem.  I am not going to go into too many details as that has been rehashed and talked about constantly. I want to talk about Monique. The actress and comedian, plays Precious’s mother Mary. Mary is one of those characters that will break your heart in so many ways. Specifically, the scene between Mary, Precious and Ms. Weiss (played by Mariah Carey), is the kind of thing that make me love film. This is what Faye Dunaway wishes her performance was in Mommy Dearest. While Mary is a monster, she also gives us insight into that monstrosity. How could someone hate their own child so much? How could they let the horrible things happen to their daughter? Her performance sheds light on some of the darkest parts of the human soul.

Another person in this film is Gabourey Sidibe. A young woman who has never done anything beyond a school play, makes the break out performance of a life time. After seeing press for the film, I am blown over by how Gabby is not Precious. She so deftly inhabits the role, that I expect her to speak, walk, and essentially be the same person as we see in the film. I think that should she fall into obscurity it will be one of the greatest tragedies of Hollywood. As an overweight, dark skinned woman of African descent, her roles will surely be limited. But this performance proves you don’t need to be Charlize Theron to undergo an astounding transformation worthy of infinite praise.

In small roles, we also have some really great talent. Mariah Carey is actually amazing in it. Her disdain for Mary is almost palatable. Sherri Shepard sans wig & Lenny Kravitz round some of the more famous faces. Paula Patton plays the teacher working to save a small group of inner city girls from their circumstances. And I really enjoyed that she was a fully realized character. Acting in what would be Precious’ best interest. She even goes so far as to suggest that Precious give her two children up for adoption in order to focus on improving her own circumstances. A truly heartwarming scene occurs between Patton’s character and her female lover as they take Precious in for Christmas. Precious says in a voice over how her mother always said how homos are evil, and sick. But as she points out homos had taken her in for the holidays, fed and clothed her, even bought her presents without really knowing her. Homos had never raped her, beaten her, made her feel shame and disgust with herself.

I can not recommend this film enough. There will be no clean cut happy ending, there will be heart break. But most importantly there will be hope.