Remembering “Precious” on its 10th Anniversary

by Cláudio Alves

Considering I haven't watched it in almost 10 years, it was amazing how much I could accurately recall from Lee Daniel's Precious. As I revisited the Academy-Award winning film to write this piece, I found myself startled at how much of it had seared into my mind. A few line readings were so vivid that, even before hearing them again, they felt like echoes from years ago. Individual scenes had metastazied into memories like vociferous ghosts, brighter than any recollections of my actual life.

The way Gabourey Sidibe says that nobody loves her still hurts, a dagger of vulnerability mercilessly plunged into the audience's heart. No less affecting is Paula Patton's desperate response, assuring Claireece 'Precious' Jones that she is loved. Notice how Mariah Carey shows her social worker's interiority through repressed horror. She wears an armor of acerbity, delivering her lines with a put-upon dryness that both masks and iluminates the hurt inside. Then there's Mo'Nique and her final monologue, a sobbed question tearing through her throat and reminding us that this monster is painfully human. The film even packs some comedic delights. Who can forget Xosha Roquemore telling the class that her favorite color is fluorescent beige?

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Mission Accomplished: Ranking the Mission Impossible Series

By Spencer Coile 

Anytime the latest entry in an action movie franchise is released, it is celebrated as 'the best' in the series. No film series has better exemplified this than the Mission Impossible franchise. What makes this series particularly special is that it set the standard for filmed reboots of classic television shows. It may not have been the first, but it certainly is the most consistent. Perhaps most importantly, it knows when to take a break. 

The release of Mission: Impossible – Fallout is a clever reminder in the age of comic book adaptations arriving every month that Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) will always be there to save the day. But how exactly has the series evolved over time? And is Fallout actually the best in the series thus far?

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Warcraft. What were they thinking?

Six questions that trouble me still from the Warcraft screening last week...

What on earth does Glenn Close need the money for?"

For some reason they only hired sexy men to play these monsters

That's just one of many questions I screamed into the abyss whilst watching this expensive, silly, over-stuffed but under-nourished video game adaptation. What's more this was only one of about 7 questions I screamed to which no answers came in a single scene of the movie. I couldn't even begin to tell you what was going on other than it was important enough to precede the climax of the movie. But I'll try. A young sorcerer (Ben Schnetzer) enters some sort of black gooey CGI cube and meets some sort of anthropomorphized supernatural force with sounds just like Glenn Close and finally looks just like Glenn Close as it solidifies and turns to camera upon which she/it/they bestow(s) on the young sorcerer some sort of magic that they've been withholding from some sort of bureaucrat mystics association so that he can return to battle another sorcerer to become "The Guardian" of the world of Azeroth where this all takes place...and that's not even the A plot!

The A plot is slightly less confusing...

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Vanity Fair 2012 'Thoroughly Modern Actresses'

The "Hollywood Issue" cover is here! You can't see me but I'm totally throwing confetti. It's one of the ten greatest Oscar season traditions (do I feel a list coming on? Maybe later).

Mario Testino took over photography duties for the first time. The girl's with the hardest working teams behind them (how do you think anybody lands the front cover?) are, from left to right, Rooney Mara, Mia Wasikowska, Jennifer Lawrence, and Miss Ubiquity 2011 Jessica Chastain. On the inside folds we get from left to right: Elizabeth Olsen, Adepero Oduye, Shailene Woodley, Paula Patton, Felicity Jones, Lily Collins and Brit Marling.

A zoom in for a closer look... 

Lisbeth, Katniss, "Mia Vashivovkoska" (thanks Meryl), and Miss Ubiquity

RuPaul's Drag Race premiered again last night so you'll forgive this outburst... 

GAG ON THE ELEGANZA!"

Not that any of these beauties look like drag queens... though Shailene Woodley wins the awards for "looking the least like herself" and Rooney Mara is still working the most easily duplicated look should you want her as your new style icon. 

more zoom-ins, reader questions, and fun trivia after the jump!

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Yes, No, Maybe So: "Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol"

The titles within this franchise always surprise with the punctuation. This one opts for one colon and a dash. A dash, huh? It must feel the need, the need for speed. This is the first time they've used a dash unless you prefer your Mission: Impossible 2 in its funkier weirdly abbreviated decapitalized M:i-2 format. Anyway.... the point is that Tom Cruise is back as agent Ethan Hunt in Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol or M:I-GP Vol. 4 if you'd like to complicate it. Let's accept the mission to break down the trailer with our Yes, No, Maybe So protocol.

Tom Cruise Does His Own Stunt Running

YES You wouldn't know it from the trailer which focuses on reminding you of the stunttacular nature of this franchise and the familiar but arguably still special effect of Tom Cruise running-jumping-glaring (say what you will about Tom Cruise -- and we all have -- but there are few movie stars as committed/believable in action sequences) but Brad Bird directed this. BRAD BIRD. If it has the teensiest sliver of The Iron Giant's humanity and if the action scenes are anywhere close to as good as the ones in The Incredibles, it's going to be straight up awesome. The big question is: can Brad Bird work directing wonders with flesh & blood actors the way he can with animators?

NO -Did we really need a fourth picture? My biggest beef with this franchise, continued here with the title card insistence that only Tom Cruise is starring in the picture, is that the Mission: Impossible series would be so much better if it were more team-oriented. Ethan pulls too much focus and the team maneuvering and chemistry is the real spark it needs to generate fireworks.

Mission: Impossible - Team 4: Pegg, Renner, Cruise and Patton

MAYBE SO -On the other hand, even if they aren't given enough to do the cast is exciting: Simon Pegg, the always welcome until he gets too ubiquitous (any second now) Jeremy Renner, Josh Holloway, Michael Nykqvist, Paula Patton, Lea Seydoux, and Tom Wilkinson doing what he does best (that distinctive voice: authoritative but always suspect with hints of possible certifiable whack-a-doo pulsating underneath)

The Trailer... 

Do you think Tom Cruise will have the comeback he's looking for over?
Will Brad Bird work well with actors who can talk back?
If you were an action star would you do your own stunts?
Are you a Yes, No or Maybe So?

Related Post from the Archive:
Directors of the Decade: Brad Bird "Mr Complexity"