Saturday, December 12, 2009

The Precious experience.



I have finished watching Precious on an FYC dvd. I didn’t take any breaks from it, it was a continuous viewing. After I’ve finished it, I got up and sat on the balcony for 3 minutes, just to bread some air and leave it behind. To me it was a haunting, a bit traumatizing experience. It’s definitely not the feel good movie of the year. It struck some cords, but I guess that was the intention… I don’t think it’s a masterpiece and I hate that I’ll have to see it again (both Gaby & Mo’Nique will get Oscar noms). At the same time, I’d want everybody I know to see it; because it’s an unpleasant sit-through and an emotional blackmail, right now it makes me feel… wiser, a more profound person. But then again: I’ve finished it less than 30 minutes ago…


Mo’Nique’s Oscar win is gonna be one of the best this category’s ever had. Gaby will not win, neither will Lee Daniels (I think), nor will it get the Best Picture (not because I’m sure that there’ll be much better movies, but I can’t imagine that a lot of people would want to remember Precious, because of its heavily uncomfortable experience). It is over-directed, but that’s the way to do it especially in the first part, when the screenplay needs help. Impossible to rate it so soon: an 8 maybe, slowly heading towards a 9. Paula Patton was also great and Mariah didn’t have enough screentime. But Mo’Nique rocked.



I don’t usually watch movies from that year until December – January – February. So I need a lot of catching up to do. Recently seen future Oscar-nominees:
- Inglourious Basterds: too much tension, but delicious.
- District 9: highly overrated.
- Transformers II: great visuals, non-sense story.
- Julie & Julia: Meryl is fine, but otherwise a simplistic flick.


Probably the next ones: Public Enemies, Star Trek, The Hurt Locker, The White Ribbon, Broken Embraces,… I would add some animated, but I’m not a big fan, so I might wait for the Oscar noms.

5 comments:

Andrew K. said...

So you really thought that Mo'Nique was that good?!! Oh well, she would make my top 30 but eh, who knows.

Anyways, the link is up :)

NP1982 said...

I am contemplating whether I want to see this movie. I feel as though it may be a bit too full on, but I will want to see all the Oscar nominees so I guess I will.

Alex Constantin said...

your arguement is very valid. That's the only reason i'd probably adventure with Invictus or all those animated movies I don't care about...

joe burns said...

Monique will probably be in my Top 10 if she wins.

Unknown said...

I think what lures most people to Monique, is the fact that in "Precious" she introduced a new facet of herself as an actress..

People were used to seeing her drowning in poorly written "african american" comedies...

Now that she's got all her cards on the table, gold is due.

I always compare her to Anne Hathaway who took a surprise turn in "Rachel Getting Married" after fooling us into thinking that she's just another "american sweetheart" with a string of rom-coms on the horizon. (yes, I'm referring to Kate Hudson. lol).