National

VIA: CNN.com In many ways, the critically acclaimed film “Precious” is about hopes and dreams. When Mo’Nique, one of the movie’s stars, was growing up in Baltimore, Maryland, she too longed for something. “I’ve always wanted to be famous,” the actress and comedian said. “I enjoyed watching famous people and so I wanted to be […]

National

VIA: USA Today.com The author known simply as Sapphire titled her acclaimed, controversial 1996 novel, Push, for a simple reason: Her narrator, an illiterate and obese 16-year-old girl, is urged to do a lot of pushing. When Precious Jones confesses to a teacher in a Harlem alternative school that she can’t read — that “the […]

National

VIA: Los Angeles Times The critical darling “Precious,” the hit of the Sundance Film Festival, received three nominations at the 67th annual Golden Globe Awards, including best film, best actress in a drama for Gabourey Sidibe and supporting actress for Mo’Nique. However, the film was snubbed in the best director and screenplay categories. George Clooney […]

General

VIA: Entertainment Weekly While big-studio releases like A Christmas Carol and The Fourth Kind topped the box office chart this weekend, all OscarWatchers’ eyes were on Precious. After dominating this year’s film-festival prizes, the indie drama opened on Friday to very strong reviews, resulting in an 85 grade from Rotten Tomatoes. EW’s Owen Gleiberman rated […]

Atlanta

VIA: Entertainment Weekly WARNING: SPOILER ALERT Part of the great power of movies is that they can take us perilously close to the life of someone we might otherwise feel perilously far from. The title character of “Precious: Based on the novel Push by Sapphire” is a hushed, damaged, morbidly obese 16-year-old African-American girl from […]