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I Found God In Myself/And I Loved Her/I Loved Her Fiercely: A Review of Precious

Best movie poster ever.

If you're going into Precious: Based on the Novel 'Push' by Sapphire expecting sadness porn, as one review stated, you'll be disappointed. True, the issues portrayed in the film are shocking and devastating in nature—incest for starters—but amazingly, this adaptation by out director Lee Daniels has an indomitable, unextinguishable buoyancy that comes in handy for both the heroine and her audience.

Queen Latifah should have begged for this; it's a surefire Oscar and instant legendary role. 

Claireece "Precious" Jones (Gabourey "Gabby" Sidibe) is 16, morbidly obese and pregnant for the second time by her father, but nothing is a greater challenge than her day-to-day ghetto-unfabulous existence under the thumb of her outrageously abusive mother, Mary (Mo'Nique). Mary so resents her child for stealing her man that she flies into violent rages whenever she isn't ordering her daughter to wait on her, buy her cigarettes, play her numbers, lie to help keep welfare coming in or worse.

Life is short, but precious. 

To get through all of this, Clarice daydreams in elaborate, intentionally cheesy sequences (that reminded me of My Own Private Idaho's talking porn covers)—Precious glad in red velvet at a movie premiere, bubbly and beloved by a tight, light-skinned boyfriend, Precious as the star singer in a glitzy gospel choir, even Precious and Mary in Two Women, the dialogue perhaps a bit too hilariously altered.

Dreams like this signal that Precious has an imagination—and a desire to better herself. In the nick of time, she's rescued by a concerned counselor (Nealla Gordon) who directs her to Each One Teach One, a school where she can get her GED (were girls really suspended from school for being pregnant in 1987? I didn't realize). There, Ms. Rain (a luminously pretty Paula Patton, pictured) inspires Precious and a hysterically funny batch of misfits (Stephanie Andujar, Chyna Layne, Amina Robinson, Xosha Roquemore and Angelic Zambrana, among others) to think for themselves and, more importantly, to express themselves through reading and writing. Ms. Rain helps to wash away the layers of self-loathing and resignation that had threatened to destroy Precious, and that will not leave without marking her for life.

Jock It To Me

JockBoyLocker has produced the 2010 Jocks of the NFFLA charity calendar with all proceeds going to Positive Impact Atlanta (which helps with HIV/AIDS testing and mental health assistance for those living with the disease). You can get the calendar by clicking here, and keep reading to see more hot outtakes...

Precious Moments

  
In the new issue of NEXT (November 6, 2009), Precious director Lee Daniels covers the gay angle in his highly regarded new film (which I can't wait to see) and also talks about HIV among people of color:

"The truth will set you free. When I did research [on HIV/AIDS organizations for the film], I expected to see a lot of [gay] boys down there. It's not. It's a bunch of black women because black men are on the DL and they have their legs spread wider than Baryshnikov infecting black women. [Black men] can't come out to church [and] can't come out to work. To live in your truth is the hardest thing imaginable."

I'd love to have him reply to this outrageous review. Granted, I have yet to see the film, but the awkwardly interjected political bent of this one is just about as gross as Mariah Carey looks (on purpose! it's a compliment!) in Precious.

A Steady Rain

 

When it rains, it...well, it's not pouring yet. Let's just say it's a nice, steady rain so far: President Obama is supposedly announcing the end of the HIV Travel & Immigration ban today while signing the Ryan White HIV/AIDS Treatment Extension Act today. I guess the people who said to chill and let Obama have some time because he'd come through in the end AND the people who said pressure works were both right, or one or the other was right. Either way, good progress. More TK?

Behind My Back

Apparently Magic Johnson still thinks it was all Isiah Thomas's fault that people thought he was secretly gay, which led to his becoming HIV-positive. Meanwhile, there were rumors about him for years prior to his publicly announcing he had HIV (Jermaine Stewart's name came up a lot). Too bad he can't let go.

Meanwhile, on the subject of who's gay and who isn't, how did I never realize this happened??? Magic's friend Arsenio Hall was heckled by Queer Nation for never having gay guests (he attempted to engage at first, but had no clue who Gus Van Sant was at the time and wasn't interested in Larry Kramer or Harvey Fierstein). 

A Walk Down Memory Lane (With A Detour For A BJ In The Bushes)

A rare photo of Mr. Mavety, who would be thrilled with this kind of PR.

Weirdly, Unzipped felt the urge to do a tribute to the Mavety gay magazines (Torso, Honcho, Inches, Playguy, Mandate)—former competitors—which ceased production in May of this year (and whose final issues are just now hitting stands).

They went to Dian Hanson for the poop on Mr. Mavety, who died nine years ago in the middle of a game of tennis at his lavish estate. Dian—a friend of mine and a close friend and employee of Mr. Mavety's—provides a lot of great first-hand information (which is enhanced by this remembrance from photographer John Michael Cox, Jr., here), though I have to wonder why Unzipped didn't also make an effort to contact any of the gay magazines' actual gay male editors.

My own memory of the place is that this fits with Mavety Media's outlook toward the gay titles—Mr. Mavety never gave up on the gay titles, but as soon as the straight magazines made more money, the gay stuff was the red-headed bastard of the flock.

"This is what I started with, this is what made me, I owe it to the community—I will never, never shut down these magazines," Mr. Mavety said to Dian before he died.

And in fact, the company didn't shut them down for another eight-plus years. But considering the loyal staff was unceremoniously dumped with no severance pay, I wouldn't say his wishes were exactly honored.

This is a highly laudatory piece right down to the wistful music. It's very one-sided, but it's an important side of a story with more than enough sides to go around.

AIDS Research Gets A Shot In The Arm

This sounds promising: Researchers have identified antibodies that keep HIV from producing "severe disease." The team, at Scripps Research Institute in La Jolla, might be on the way to a vaccine.

"This is opening up a whole new area of science," said Dr. Seth F. Berkley (pictured), CEO of the entity behind the research, International AIDS Vaccine Initiative.

Over 25 million people have died of AIDS since its emergence in the early 1980s.

The Only Eulogy To Ever Drop The F-Bomb?

I've never seen this—posted to YouTube yesterday, this is Madonna's full, "Herbified" eulogy for Herb Ritts. It's very sweet and provides several noteworthy details. She met him on the set  of Desperately Seeking Susan, she reminisces about that amazing shoot they did on the beach and she refers to him as "like a big brother to me, a very loveable one."

She also dons glasses to read that the day of his memorial was associated with the concept that there is "no such thing as death, no such thing as an ending, no such thing as time, space or emotion, no such thing as limitations of any kind" to point out that "just because we can't see Herb, doesn't mean he's not here." Very "Nothing Fails," very American Life.

Madonna gets Ritts-y.

Touchingly, she ends by pointing out that photography is about taking a negative and turning it into a positive.

Raw Is For Vegetables (And Even Those Taste Better Cooked)

Panels like this are a joke. It was convened to address the unfair stigma of calling those who engage in unsafe sex as "barebackers." It's certainly worth pointing out that straight people who do it are never referred to as barebackers, but then again sex with a vagina is a lot less likely to result in the transmission of HIV from top to bottom (usually) than sex with a rectum from top to bottom (usually) is, which is just our tough luck.

Public Dancer

Greg Louganis wants to be on Dancing With the Stars, but ABC has so far rebuffed him. Is it because he has too much dance experience, too little star power...or because of some other reason?