Playlist: Precious

Or should I say Precious: Based on the Novel Push by Sapphire? (Rhetorical--I shouldn’t. Really, how pretentious is that title? Or is it insulting? As in, neither the fans of the book nor the movie could add 1 + 1.) Or Precious: Liberal Guilt Oscar Bait? Too harsh? Maybe, but watching this with award season hype in the rear view exposes it for what it ultimately is: nothing we haven’t seen before.

Academy Award-nominated Director Lee Daniels reveals his inexperience by forcing overproduced visual flourishes into his narrative that distract from the gritty realism that is the film’s true strength. At one point, the title character’s abusive mother throws an ashtray at her, but it’s shot in Matrix bullet time. Why?

Academy Award-nominated star Gabourey Sidibe mumbled a lot of her lines and I honestly could not understand her at times. While she was physically right for the role (how's that for a back-handed compliment?), again, her inexperience worked against the movie. She demonstrated very little emotional range for such a tormented teenage girl. Howard Stern got a lot of flack for saying “Everyone's pretending she's a part of show business and she's never going to be in another movie.” Of course he did. You can't tell the truth about certain things, especially when it contradicts Oprah. But, let's be real: how many good roles are there for black actresses? Combine that with the lack of roles for obese actresses and you have a rather grim professional Venn diagram.

Then there's Best Supporting Actress winner Mo'Nique. Wow. This isn't a bad movie at all, but this is definitely the reason to see it. As Precious's mom, she gives one of the most uncompromisingly mean performances ever. Just hardcore scary at times. Not that I was scared. I mean, I could see you being scared.

I don't get scared.