Archive for December, 2009

Precious Movie Review

Posted: December 31, 2009 in Movie Review, Precious
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Release Date: November 6, 2009 (limited; expands: Nov. 13; wide release: Nov. 20) 
Studio: Lionsgate 
Director: Lee Daniels 
Screenwriter: Geoffrey Fletcher 
Starring: Gabourey “Gabby” Sidibe, Paula Patton, Mo’Nique, Mariah Carey, Sherri Shepherd, Lenny Kravitz 
Genre: Drama 
MPAA Rating: R (for child abuse including sexual assault, and pervasive language) 
Official Website: WeAreAllPrecious.com
 
Plot
This film is based on the novel “Push” by Sapphire. 
Born in Harlem, Claireece “Precious” Jones’ life is filled with neglect, sexually abusive parents, and misery beyond compare.  Carrying her second child by an absent father, Precious must live and care for her mother Mo’Nique, a violently angry woman who verbally, physically, mentally and sexually abuses her.  Living off of welfare, Precious is under constant pressure to do everything for her mother, and nothing for herself.
However, under the guidance of her new found special education teacher, Precious continues to live life under the impression that there are endless possibilities for her.  And now, with a second child on the way, she must make a decision to push forward and discover a life she could have her and her children, or continue in an abusive and unloving home.

My Thoughts
This is probably one of the harder films I’ve ever sat through in my life as a movie goer.  Hardly anything in this film made me feel good, happy, or even positive about the reality of life for families on the poverty end of the scale.  It’s hard to imagine anyone with the ability to handle the harsh and terrible conditions that Precious had to live with.  I walked out of this movie feeling dirty and unable to fathom this world of abuse and neglect.
The film begins with the disturbing scene of Precious’ father throwing her on a bed, raping her, unbuckling his belt and thrusting himself on the constrained body of the middle school girl.  If that visual is not vulgar enough, we have the father whispering grotesque things into her ear.
“Daddy loves you.”
“You’re so much better than you’re mother.”
But of course her dad leaves, with Precious living her days waiting hand and foot on her mother Mary who does nothing except lounge around in her recliner barking orders and insults at Precious in addition to physically abusing her.  Mary is a prime example of those who abuse the welfare system.  When Precious was kicked out of school, Mary would tell her only child, “If you ain’t going to school, you better get your ass to the welfare office and start bringing home a check.”  This and much more describe the life of Precious.  Even after Precious has her second child, Mary shows her disgust by dropping a TV from the top floor of the apartment stairwell with Precious (and her baby) just below.
 
The film is spectacular at setting up the character of Precious played by Gabourney Sidibe in her film debut.  As an audience, we learn very early on that this is a girl unlike most people.  She has experienced the most traumatizing aspects of life before she’s moved on to high school.  She’s on the verge of giving birth to a second child by her father, has a mother who hates her, uneducated, obese and lives in the dangerous streets of Harlem.  Her life is, needless to say, difficult.  But what I found the most interesting is how well Precious dealt with everything that was thrown at her.  Thank God she was introduced to Ms. Rain, her new special education teacher, who helped Precious realize how special she truly was and gave her confidence to transcend beyond the life she grew up in.  And when she finally realized that no one could grasp the life she has had the misfortune of experiencing, she finally decided to break away from all that was holding her back and venture out on her own to provide the best possible life for her children.  While this story was inspiring and moving, it was all at the same time depressing and hard to watch.
Mary, played by Mo’Nique, delivered one of the most powerful performances by an actress I have seen all year.  The only one I can see rivaling Mo’Nique would be Meryl Streep with her performance of sister Aloysius Beauvier in “Doubt.”  How anyone can even play a part of a heartless, unloving mother who beats and sexually abuses her child is beyond me, but Mo’Nique delivers a performance unlike any I’ve seen in 2009.  It’s in the last scene where Mo’Nique delivers her Oscar worthy bit of oratory; love and hate is what caused Mary to hate her only daughter.  And it makes sense when she has a boyfriend who sexually wants their daughter more than he wants her.  It’s a powerful statement that makes you both hate and sympathize with Mary.  Mo’Nique will be busy come time for the Oscars.
Sidibe, this being her very first film role, delivers a realistic and satisfying portrayal of poverty children living in run down section of cities.  Along with her sweet and quiet nature, Precious showed signs of feisty and defensive attitudes which she undoubtedly developed in her early stages of life.  Sidibe is living proof that experience is not necessarily what makes an actress great.
Conclusion
A very hard film to watch.  As much as I enjoyed the film, I don’t think I’ll ever be seeing it again, it is too depressing and angry.  However, with that being said, it’s one of the better films of 2009.  I have no idea if the Oscar nominations were cut off when this film came out in early November, but if they weren’t, I would be very disappointed if I didn’t see this film in the running for best motion picture.  And in the same respect, I would be even more disappointed and probably angry to not see Mo’Nique nominated for best supporting actress.  It was also really nice to see a quite literally all female cast in truly remarkable film.
Rating: 8.5 out of 10 stars.

Avatar Movie Review

Posted: December 27, 2009 in Avatar, Movie Review
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Release Date: December 18, 2009 (conventional 3D theaters and IMAX 3D) 
Studio: 20th Century Fox 
Director: James Cameron 
Screenwriter: James Cameron 
Starring: Sam Worthington, Zoe Saldana, Sigourney Weaver, Michelle Rodriguez, Giovanni Ribisi, Joel David Moore, CCH Pounder, Peter Mensah, Laz Alonso, Wes Studi, Stephen Lang, Matt Gerald 
Genre: Action, Adventure 
MPAA Rating: PG-13 (for intense epic battle sequences and warfare, sensuality, language and some smoking) 
Official Website: Avatarmovie.com

Enter a world filled with exotic creatures that all hold a deep, emotional and physical bond with the planet they call home.  This planet, with all its beauty and wonder, contains a very important mineral which holds the key in solving the ever rising energy loss on Earth.  Now, Earth has established a military outpost where scientists are doing research to help find this valuable mineral and extract it.
However, with the toxic air on this planet, known as Pandora, scientists developed a biological program called the Avatar.  Humans, with extensive training and research, inhabit a remotely controlled, biological body that greatly resembles the “Indian-like” natives called the Na’vi.  This allows the scientists to research and be among the Na’vi without endangering themselves, breathing in the toxic air.
Jake Sully, an ex-marine now confined to a wheelchair, is brought out to link up with one of the Avatars and assist the science excursion.  However, the Colonel Miles Quaritch has bestowed upon Mr. Sully the task of infiltrating the Na’vi as to better prepare themselves to strike at the natives and drive them out of their homes.  Jake, agreeing to help the colonel, finds himself becoming emotionally attached to the Na’vi, and more importantly, to a beautiful Na’vi woman named Neytiri.
Through a series of tests and tribulations, Jake Sully must now decide where his loyalties lie.  Will he help the colonel and continually feed information to the military, or will he betray his own race and side with the Na’vi and fight the invasion of humans?
How does one measure the quality of a film?  What standards must a person expect from films in order to judge their film making quality and ingenuity?  I used to think that a film could not be judge on two separate playing fields.  If the story is great, but the other aspects of the film are terrible, then I typically throw the baby out with the bath water and dub the film as garbage.  My film critiquing philosophy is to take all the aspects of the movie, analyze them, and come to a conclusion on the quality of the film as a whole. However, director James Cameron has defied all boundaries and forced me to stray away from my mode of thinking for one night; for never have I been so torn between hating and loving a film than I have with Avatar.
First, let me just point out that this script is nothing new.  I’m sure even our most ignorant intellectuals in Americacan see the Pocahontas resemblance, especially when Neytiri hovers over Jake Sully’s Avatar body right before the coup de grace.  But of course, the entire script screams Native Americans fighting against the oppressive English Colonists trying to take land that isn’t theirs, right?  Of course, how can we not also give credit to Avatar’s other film inspirations such as Fern-Gully, Dances with Wolves, The Postman, Remember The Titans, Radio, and many other films where the main character develops a new realization about him or herself by accidentally being introduced into a “savage” community.  How many films have done this in the past, and how many more times are we going to continue to see this pattern of story telling in the future of American cinema?
But to make matters worse, the story is so incredibly predictable that it’s on the verge of being embarrassing.  I couldn’t help but wonder why this film wasn’t made by Disney Entertainment or some other type of family oriented film company where the stories follow a certain set of rules in telling a simple narrative.  I literally slapped myself in the face when the hordes of animals came charging in, attacking the humans towards the end.  In that moment, my exact words were “how Hollywood of them.”  There are no decisions or actions made by any character that comes as a surprise and truly is a disappointment on the literary side of things.  I’m not trying to imply that the message of the film isn’t incredibly moralistic and powerful, I only wish James Cameron hadn’t of used an easy and unoriginal way of telling a truly moving story.
On the other hand, what an incredible piece of visual artistry!  James Cameron was right when he said this will be the film in which all other CGI based films will be judged.  If it hadn’t of been for the brilliant special effects, animation, and acting, I would have been bored out of my mind.  The creatures of the planet Pandora had the same affect that Spielberg’s dinosaurs had in his adaptation of Jurassic Park.  The disconnect between what was real and what was animated was virtually non-existent.  The intricate detailing of the air crafts all the way down to the native clothing was perfect and undeniably superior to anything that has hit the big screen in the history of film making.
The world of Pandora in and of itself is enough of a sight to see, let alone all of its creatures and inhabitants.  The animation team hired to put this world together should be given an Oscar for their undoubtedly tiresome work. Every blade of grass, every flower, tree, grain of said, leaf, etc, were all perfected down to its tiniest detail.  How some people can say it’s immensely cheaper to make an animated film rather than a live action film have no idea what kind of work it takes to recreate the world on an animated level.  Avatar is a landmark in innovative and remarkable CGI technology.

I can honestly say this is FAR from being the best film I’ve ever seen.  With its absolutely horrid and predictable plot, along side all of the recycled movie themes and unoriginality within the script; I just can’t justly say this film was good.  In fact, as far as the script is concerned, I would say it’s downright awful!  But everything else that encompasses this film, especially it’s visual aspects, I would say it’s definitely worth going to see. I will never own this movie, but might rent it or watch it via Netflix, purely to gaze on its visual mastery.  But even then, it won’t compare to seeing it on the big screen.