Review: Precious: Based on the Novel 'Push' by Sapphire (2009)

Precious is a story of characters all hoping for something more, but none of them really working to earn anything. There's no denying that they have suffered at the hands of others and that their lives have spiralled far beyond their control but the constant onslew of glamour dreams and impossible hope with no work put towards such achievements results in a weird sense of apathy towards everyone concerned.

The majority of the visuals are grounded in the real world, circa 1987 in the Harlem district of New York. It's a scummy dirty cesspool of a neighbourhood littered with graffiti and gangbangers exploiting the ugly nature of the slum lifestyle and director Lee Daniels pulls no punches in showing just how hard such a life is to live. The real struggle is just getting through a day for Precious (Gabourey Sidibe) as she attempts to juggle her abusive mother, her seemingly pointless school life and frequent molestation at the hands of her father. When one such incestual incident results in Precious finding herself pregnant for the second time at age 16, she's expelled from her public school and directed by her principal towards an alternative education establishment where she learns to write amidst a group of additional social misfits.

Precious' own dream sequences which are littered throughout the experience deliver her own private fantasies in such a stark brightened fashion that contrasts so harshly from the real world that it only really manages to highten the pessimistic tone of the movie when the happiness crashes down at the end of such a sequence. The soundtrack is a mish-mash of hip-hop and r&b popular songs of varying tone which are completely appropriate when considering the setting but rarely feels as if it is influencing the feel of the movie.

Regarding Precious as a character, there's nothing especially likeable about her; she's a course hardened shell on the outside whose lack of intelligence goes beyond her academic skills. Much of her dialogue gives the impression that she is a younger character than she should be and that rather than trying to better herself and rise above her broken home she expects everything to just work out, as a young child often does. Although Precious inevitably undergoes a substantial progression throughout the running time, it rarely feels like she's made any choices herself and for the most part, seems pressured into doing the right thing. Gabourey Sidibe does as good a job with Precious as she could be expected but the real show-stopper is Mo'Nique portraying Precious' mother Mary. Mary's constant abuse is certainly the emotional centrepiece of the movie and the most intelligent depiction of a broken character the film has to offer as a whole.

Although Precious presents a broken home with characters who are convinced they can do better, it's unwillingness to allow any of it's characters to take any real chances results in a movie that has plenty of heart but refuses to introduce any intelligence to the mix. As a result the film trundles along at minimally appropriate pace, relying on it's cast to make any sort of impression at all.

3/5
(originally posted on Screened.com)

Review: Dead Man's Shoes (2006)

In Dead Man's Shoes director Shane Meadows showcases a movie that is all heart but in a fashion so gritty and ugly that it's nigh on impossible to feel sympathetic to almost any of the characters. Measuring the limits of common human decency and exploring how compulsive vengeance can be proves to be an exercise in self control from a viewing perspective as the movie unfolds and the morality of each personality spirals furthur into the abyss.

Taking place exclusively amidst the rural villages of Englands Midlands, Dead Man's Shoes tells the story of Richard (Paddy Considine), a paratrooper who returns home to exact revenge upon the tormentors of his mentally disabled younger brother, Anthony (Toby Kebbell). The extent of Anthony's abuse stems from a group of drug dealers who manipulate him into feeling like an important part of their group before taking advantage of him in an series of increasingly sinister ways. This coersion runs parrallel to the main revenge narrative via a number of grained black and white flashbacks, which early on seemingly lack in subtlety but progressively intensify the hardened tone of the production as a whole. At first, Richard plays mind games with his targets and the film takes it's time to establish who each of the key antagonists are but from the moment first blood is shed, events only continue to darken at a dizzying pace; there's a solid chance that the only reason that Dead Man's Shoes is watchable is because Meadows ramps up the tension with such incessant speed that it becomes difficult to stop absorbing the drama, however brutal.

Most of that brutality comes courtesy of Paddy Considine, putting in a career defining performance as a man so utterly driven that in the heat of his fury it's impossible to imagine how he would have been before the events of the movie. In between these scenes, Richards intimidation techniques influences the tone of a number of early sequences. however, Considine plays the role with a certain sensitivity that can only be associated with such a hardened bastard as Richard. Paddy's remarkable ability to change the whole feel of the movie in a single moment is an aesthetic in and of itself. Kebbell does a more than competent job of portraying Anthony, both in quiet and comfortable moments with Richard as well as in the torturous flashes of sheer humiliation at the hands of the gang he hangs around with.


Meadows shows that he knows how to work a scene throughout the movie, making full use of the British countryside that is rarely shown in such a frequent manner as it is here and managing to seamlessly portray the cramped interiors that make up about half of the movie. He manages the film with a certain balance that keeps the whole production on the right side of razor's edge between raw and silly. The soundtrack for the film, made mostly of acoustic tracks, works wonders at establishing and re-establishing the mood as it radically shifts. The only real gripe would be with the two choir tracks towards the back half of the film, the latter of the two working in conjuncture with the mise-en-scene to achieve a certain sense of awe, but the former seeming slightly pretentious due to the stark contrast with the established setting and method used to set up the story.
Ultimately, although not without it's flaws, Considine and Meadows have provided a dark and fatalistic journey to the heart of evil that can be accessed by anyone, providing they've lost enough to really drive them.

4/5
(originally posted on Screened.com)