Prominent African-American film critic eviscerates Precioius- Page 2

[Borstalboy]

Posted: 11/6/09 at 6:03pm

But doesn't he have a point about the poverty-stricken blackness of the story somehow being a catch-all for OTT melodrama?

I'm inclined to think that if, say, Lars Von Trier made a film about a white teenager who was poor AND obese AND an outcast AND abused by her mother AND molested by her father AND had two kids by him AND one of them has Down's Syndrome AND she has AIDS...the same critics and audiences that are heralding this as the biggest thing since the last time someone saw the Virgin Mary in a grilled cheese would never stop whipping him for such sensasionalistic silliness.

But this is about urban blacks. Thus its totally realistic.

Of course, Von Trier probably would have included a scene where a tearful Precious drowns her babies in the toilet or something, but something tells me that PRECIOUS isn't all that far down the road from portraying such a thing.

Updated On: 11/6/09 at 06:03 PM

[MrMidwest]

Posted: 11/7/09 at 10:40am

Dave Poland's review:

"Precious Jones and her life is so far away from any reality that 99.9% of film critics have ever experienced in real life, she naturally morphs into an object. And because the movie does not insist that we honestly face the full ugliness and hopelessness of her story, that is leaves us feeling bad for her, feeling good for her, and going “ooooh” when she gets hit in the head not once, but twice, by heavy objects being thrown by the parent that didn’t rape her innumerable times and impregnate her twice, we are able to leave the theater feeling like we experienced something that makes us better people without carrying the painful emotion of being members of society who did not have to suffer this way or having to do anything about those who suffer this way every single day while living within 10 miles of us."

http://www.mcnblogs.com/thehotblog/archives/2009/11/reviewish_preci.html

[adamgreer]

Posted: 11/7/09 at 12:29pm

He lost me when he called Norbit and Beloved great films.

I have no opinion on Precious yet, because I haven't seen it, though I want to.

[best12bars]

Posted: 11/7/09 at 12:44pm

Throw tomatoes at me if you want, but I thought Beloved was a terrific but flawed film. (a friend called it The Color Purple meets The Exorcist)

Norbit, on the other hand ... I didn't even make it through the trailer.

I don't get how this guy keeps saying every movie he hates (Unbreakable, Precious) is the Birth of a Nation of its day. Is that the only movie he can use as a comparison?

Updated On: 11/7/09 at 12:44 PM

[Pgenre]

Posted: 11/7/09 at 2:11pm

I agree with best12.

History will look favorably on BELOVED. I, too, think it is quite a riveting film (and I HATE O and Morrison, the latter with a passion) due in no small part to Jonathan Demme's tasteful, elegant, (and a little languid) direction. This is the man who directed THE SILENCE OF THE LAMBS, after all, and I think he really could have made it much more "horror"-fying and his restraint is what makes it work, much as it does in SOTL. The book isn't very good, but the story works quite well on film (better?). I also LOVE Thandie Newton and Danny Glover in this, as well. Plus, it's Demme's best film besides SOTL (MELVIN & HOWARD is fun, but...). I think if you watch it now, a decade later, you will see that the O hype killed it and there is a terse, tense tale being told here, just not in the way you might have expected it to be told.

P
Updated On: 11/7/09 at 02:11 PM

[jrb_actor]

Posted: 11/10/09 at 1:46am

I could not disagree more with the critic.

If this had been about a white family, yes, I would have believed every bit of it.

But the truth is that the relationship between economics, education and racism are tightly intertwined. And that is why this film is a mirror to society--not guilt or exploitation or any other such nonsense.

[madbrian]

Posted: 11/10/09 at 8:53am

Per boxofficemojo, this film made over $1.8 million on just 18 screens. That's a ridiculous, unheard of average of over $100k per screen.
box office

[doodlenyc]

Posted: 11/10/09 at 12:00pm

I loved Beloved...especially the book, and thought the film was quite good considering what a difficult story it was to tell. I adored Lisa Gay Hamilton and especially Kimberly Elise. I thought O did a great job as well.