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Precious: Based on the Novel Push by Sapphire (2008)

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Average Rating: 7.8/10
Reviews Counted: 215
Fresh: 196 | Rotten: 19

Precious is a grim yet ultimately triumphant film about abuse and inner-city life, largely bolstered by exceptional performances from its cast.

Average Rating: 8.1/10
Critic Reviews: 38
Fresh: 35 | Rotten: 3

Precious is a grim yet ultimately triumphant film about abuse and inner-city life, largely bolstered by exceptional performances from its cast.

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Average Rating: 3.6/5
User Ratings: 134,563

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Movie Info

Monster's Ball producer Lee Daniels follows up his 2005 directorial debut, Shadowboxer, with this adaptation of author Sapphire's best-selling novel about an overweight, illiterate African-American teen from Harlem who discovers an alternate path in life after she begins attending a new school. Clareece "Precious" Jones is only a teenager, yet she's about to give birth to her second child. Unable to read or write, Clareece shows little prospect for the future until discovering that she has been

R, 1 hr. 49 min.

Drama

Directed By: Lee Daniels

Written By: Damien Paul

In Theaters: Nov 6, 2009 Wide

On DVD: Mar 9, 2010

Box Office:$47.5M

Lionsgate Films

The remarkable Sidibe is one of several daring casting choices by director Lee Daniels.

April 4, 2011 Full Review Source: Newsday

| Comment

Rafer Guzman

Newsday

Top Critic

Precious is an emotional powerhouse, a triumph of bruising humor and bracing hope that deserves its place among the year's best films.

February 2, 2011 Full Review Source: Rolling Stone

| Comment

Peter Travers

Rolling Stone

Top Critic

Avoiding the conventional tricks of lifting an audience up, the movie looks into this girl's wide, brown face and her bleak little life and sees, despite everything, a reason to live.

November 24, 2009 Full Review Source: Boston Globe

| Comments (2)

Wesley Morris

Boston Globe

Top Critic

If you do watch -- and you certainly should -- you will see one of the most remarkable performances ever set to film, given by Gabourey "Gabby" Sidibe.

November 20, 2009 Full Review Source: Detroit News

| Comment (1)

Tom Long

Detroit News

Top Critic

It melodramatizes everything and yet its overall effect is something more than melodrama.

November 20, 2009 Full Review Source: Christian Science Monitor

| Comment (1)

Peter Rainer

Christian Science Monitor

Top Critic

Mo'Nique plunges headfirst into a moral abyss that makes her frightening.

November 20, 2009 Full Review Source: Denver Post

| Comment

Lisa Kennedy

Denver Post

Top Critic

The bottom line is that you've never seen anything quite like this -- in its highs, its lows, its gaffes, its embarrassments or its uplift.

April 3, 2012 Full Review Source: Time Out Chicago

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Ben Kenigsberg

Time Out Chicago

Sidibe's Susan Boyle moment of misdirected public pity notwithstanding, hers is a rare and welcome presence in American independent film.

April 4, 2011 Full Review Source: Sacramento News & Review

| Comment

Jonathan Kiefer

Sacramento News & Review

The story's world is stacked against Precious, and the movie's marketing engine is stacked against Sidibe, but in some ways those structures explain why we're hearing about this young woman in the first place.

April 4, 2011 Full Review Source: Paste Magazine

| Comment

Robert Davis

Paste Magazine

While Mo'Nique's performance is the barnburner, it is Sidibe and her classmates who resonate, who inhabit a world outside of themselves and their wretched fiefdoms.

April 4, 2011 Full Review Source: Movieline

| Comment

Michelle Orange

Movieline

While Precious certainly looks the part of the powerful award-worthy drama, it does very little to convince the audience that it actually is.

April 4, 2011 Full Review Source: Bullz-Eye.com

| Comment

Jason Zingale

Bullz-Eye.com

It's probably one of the most important films of the year.

April 4, 2011 Full Review Source: JoBlo's Movie Emporium

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Chris Bumbray

JoBlo's Movie Emporium

A powerful, deeply moving film that drives an arrow straight through your heart.

April 4, 2011 Full Review Source: Cleveland Plain Dealer

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Clint O'Connor

Cleveland Plain Dealer

Gabourey Sidibe plays the title character and if she wasn't an actor before this, she sure is now.

April 4, 2011 Full Review Source: Movies.com

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Dave White

Movies.com

Mo'Nique isn't just a box-office draw here, she is a snarling, disaffected she-demon...

February 3, 2011 Full Review Source: What Culture

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Mike Edwards

What Culture

Precious ... [achieves] moments of haunting, devastating power, yet too often [lapses] into laughably ridiculous melodrama ... Precious is no easy ride. As far as harrowing films go, it makes The Road seem like The Wiz.

October 21, 2010 Full Review Source: Quickflix

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Simon Miraudo

Quickflix

This isn't The Biggest Loser, where self-esteem is measures in kilos, but this is in fact a film about a teacher nurturing a young woman's mind and soul, carrying the torch of films like To Sir With Love, Stand and Deliver, and Dangerous Minds.

July 4, 2010 Comment

Cris Kennedy

Screenwize

Sidibe fearlessly embodies a member of society that deserves recognition. Illiteracy, obesity and abuse are tragic and uncomfortable realities that Precious goes a long way to demystify.

April 14, 2010 Full Review Source: Concrete Playground

| Comment (1)

Alice Tynan

Concrete Playground

Propelled forward by tremendous performances, Precious is a pedestrian exploration of social themes and mental, physical and sexual abuse.

April 2, 2010 Full Review Source: Oscar Guy

| Comments (2)

Wesley Lovell

Oscar Guy

Most notable for the performances of newcomer and Oscar nominee Gabourey Sidibe and Mo'Nique,as her abusive mother. Set in 1980s Harlem, the film would be just another inspirational tearjerker were it not for the dedication of the performers and the visua

March 13, 2010 Full Review Source: Arkansas Democrat-Gazette

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Philip Martin

Arkansas Democrat-Gazette

The fetid insanity of it all seems appropriate given the circumstances.

March 7, 2010 Full Review Source: Projection Booth

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Rob Humanick

Projection Booth

Baby Mama Dearest minus the coat hangers and Hollywood mansion, this bad parenting horror movie boasts exceptional performances, but is social pornography at its worst, festering in racial self-loathing and oblivious to a system that ignores its neediest.

March 6, 2010 Full Review Source: NewsBlaze

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Prairie Miller

NewsBlaze

Visually, morally, Precious is whack, but praise Mo'Nique's performance ("Fuck a stipend!") and Gabourey Sidibe's superior one.

March 3, 2010 Full Review Source: Slant Magazine

| Comment

Ed Gonzalez

Slant Magazine

More Critic Reviews

Audience Reviews for Precious: Based on the Novel Push by Sapphire

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i honestly cant tell if this is a Tyler Perry movie or something serious... either way ill pass

November 21, 2009

Coxxie Mild Sauce

Super Reviewer

Good film! Powerful and touching at times. Mo'Nique received a lot of praise for her performance here and it's for a good reason; she gives a really great performance. I also loved Paula Patton and Mariah Carey's performances. Overall a solid film about the hardships in life. Maybe a little overrated, but still good. I loved the classroom scenes.

August 31, 2010

Jameson Worley

Super Reviewer

Precious: Based on the Novel Push by Sapphire Quotes

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1. Clareece "Precious" Jones: What? What?
– Submitted by Anthony A (3 months ago)
1. Clareece "Precious" Jones: Some folks has a lot of things around them that shines for other peoples. I think that maybe some of them was in tunnels. And in that tunnel, the only light they had, was inside of them. And then long after they escape that tunnel, they sitll be shining for everybody else.
– Submitted by Nusfish K (3 months ago)
1. Consuelo: F for fat. [Precious smacks her in the face twice and everyone screams in excitement]
2. Ms. Rain: Hey! Hey! Quit!
3. Rhonda: Fuck her up!
4. Consuelo: What the fuck!?
5. Clareece "Precious" Jones: What? What?
6. Ms. Rain: Quit it!
7. Consuelo: [at Joann] Shut the fuck up! [at Ms. Rain] She just slapped me!
8. Ms. Rain: [at Consuelo] Get out! [at Precious] We don't fight in my class.
– Submitted by Nhia T (4 months ago)
1. KFC Cashier: What you want, baby?
2. Clareece "Precious" Jones: Give me a basket, please.
3. KFC Cashier: Sides?
4. Clareece "Precious" Jones: I don know yet, still thinking about it. Gotta watch my figur.
5. KFC Cashier: Bouchell, you got a ten piece ready?
6. Clareece "Precious" Jones: [Precious looks around for a bit at the people and the time. Cashier comes back with basket of chicken] Potato Salad. Thank you. [Precious runs off without paying]
7. KFC Cashier: Oh hell no she didn't! Uh-uh! Get her ass! Get that big bitch!
– Submitted by Nhia T (4 months ago)
1. Joann: Consuelo is a slut, Joann is not a slut.
2. Consuelo: You da one who's da hoe up in here! I don't know who you call---
3. Rhonda: Perfect, you get a gold star! [everyone laughs]
– Submitted by Nhia T (4 months ago)

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