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NATHANIEL ROGERS

Nathaniel would live inside a movie theater but for the poor internet reception. He blogs daily at the Film Experience.

YOUR FEATURE PRESENTATION

You're barely a reel into Lee Daniel's Precious (based on the novel Push by Sapphire) before you begin to realize that maybe Job didn't have it so bad after all. Claireece "Precious" Jones is suffering. She's obese, she's a welfare mother of a disabled child, she's pregnant again, kicked out of high school, her parents abuse her, neighborhood kids taunt her. She's illiterate on top of that… as the twee incorrectly spelled opening credits foreshadow.

Before too long, though, "Precious" has enrolled in an alternate school for girls who are slipping through the cracks. She blossoms, as much as a continually trampled living thing can, under the guidance of a new teacher (Paula Patton). The further she steps away from her nightmare home life, the more she begins to see new possible futures. It's already hell at home but her abusive mentally ill mother Mary (Mo'Nique in an Oscar-winning performance… four months from now that is, just wait) is ready to drag her to the next circle when she realizes her meal ticket is transforming into a girl that might actually fly away.

Add a third party (Mariah Carey's weary social worker, miles from Glitter) to this tug of war for Claireece's soul, and you have an absolutely riveting drama. For all of the misery, the film is remarkably energizing.

Because Precious is so vividly felt, staged and acted (it's a sure fire Oscar contender) and because the tub-thumping for the movie comes from a bullseye as big as Oprah Winfrey, whose every recommendation seems to be treated with disdain in some corners (despite a track record  that's not entirely disdain-worthy… just hit and miss like anyone else's verbal thumbs up) reactions to Precious will undoubtedly be just as vividly delivered.

MORE on Precious and other films, AFTER THE JUMP…

It's true that there are many cracks in the artful construction of Precious. But like its heroine, it proves unexpectedly resilient. It never breaks down while walking its risky path. At times out director Lee Daniels doesn't seem able to reign in his most flamboyant impulses — a black and white Italian sequence. Really? — but it's doubtful the film would work as well without Claireece's fantastical escapes from reality which manage to be moving and troubling simultaneously. The segments at school bring the film welcome humor and happiness, but Paula Patton's leans too hard on the saintliness of her lesbian teacher. But on the other hand, teachers who finally do reach students seem like angels to those students, don't they? Mo'Nique's frightening portrayal of an unstable mother is so effectively imagined and shaded that the actress sometimes threaten to dominate even the scenes she isn't in. But why shouldn't she? Claireece has been living under Mary's sickness and oppression all her life, why shouldn't her presence unbalance upset and threaten to topple the entire forward thrust of this character journey?

In a lesser film the parade of misery might also feel exploitative but there are few moments in Precious that aren't thoroughly suffused with the humanity. It's almost as if the movies blood sweat and tears are rushing in to seal up every crack or arguable stumble in the rough telling. Many moviegoers are about to fall hard for Precious's throbbing humanity and hard won optimism. Maybe you will, too.

Now we'll have to moodswing like Mary to finish this week's post…

Also Opening: Oscar-seeking Hal Holbrook (recently nominated for Into the Wild) and Ray McKinnon (Deadwood) are both terrific as two men warring over a farm in the well judged indie drama That Evening Sun; Cameron Diaz and James Mardsen must make a high concept movie choice in The Box. Should they press a button that kills a stranger in order to receive one million dollars? The things people will do in movies for a cool million. (Sleeping with Robert Redford for the money seems a lot less morally objectionable. Calling Demi Moore!); Jim Carrey gets Scrooged in the 257,392nd version of A Christmas Carol. How many have you seen? My question is one of medium: Jim Carrey's face is already inhumanly flexible…why does that face need the extra flexibility that animation provides?; The latest scary movie, The Fourth Kind, concerns alien abductions; and The Men Who Stare At Goats gathers a top tier male cast (George Clooney, Ewan McGregor, Jeff Bridges, Kevin Spacey) for some snarky war games… jedi war games.

BONUS SCENES

"The Ten Gayest Freeze Frames From the Hannah Montana Movie"… Awww, cowboy twink.

Robert Pattison underwear? You go too far, Twilight. You go too far.

If you're into gay zombies (no judgments!) you can follow Bruce LaBruce's (Hustler White, The Raspberry Reich) wild shooting diaries from the ultra low budget LA Zombie, starring François Sagat, his undead horror/porn follow up to Otto, Or Up With Dead People.

When Pedro Met Penelope. The great director Pedro Almodóvar and Oscar winner Penélope Cruz have been making the rounds promoting Broken Embraces. More on their famous collaborative relationship at the NY Times.

Will Ninja Assassin make Rain, Korea's Justin Timberlake if you will, into a bigger star in the US? Surely he hopes so with those Vegas concerts coming up. 'are you gonna a bad boy / are you gonna be a bad bad boy?'

Remember when paparazzi caught Dolph Lundgren nude on the beach this summer? (nsfw) This week the 80s action star turned 52. I celebrated reminiscing about the years when he was always nekked. Like good action stars should be. Ah, Showdown In Little Tokyo.

Do you love bad movies? Thankfully there's lots of so-bad-it's-good appreciations on the internet. While I was in Little Tokyo, Stale Popcorn hilariously skewered Babs's self-aggrandizing fantasy The Mirror Has Two Faces this week. Read it and weep laugh.

You'll probably need to if you've just seen Precious.

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MODERN TONIC

The editors of Modern Tonic present a weekly music update here on Towleroad. The rest of the week, they scan the pop culture landscape for movie, TV, book and Web recommendations in their daily email.

TODAY’S FEATURED RELEASES:

Significant days deserve observance, and September 29 is now apparently Gay Icon Album Release Day. Today, three superstars — Mariah, Madonna and Barbra — vie for the No. 1 spot with new album releases. We probably should have used a sick day to take it all in.

After being blindsided by the film Glitter, the resilient
R&B artist and actress Mariah Carey has not only re-risen as high
as her glorious voice can go, she’s gone higher. Since her comeback
album The Emancipation of Mimi in 2005, Carey’s been on a roll unmatched by any singer of comparable stature and her latest recording, Memoirs of an Imperfect Angel,
isn’t going to stop it (nor will her role in the forthcoming film Precious.) She’s always been a superlative singer, but
she’s gotten better with every release — not just technically, but in
the tangle of emotions she can evoke in a single note. Proof? Put Memoirs
on your iPod on shuffle. If forced to choose favorites, we’re voting
for the low-riding jam “More Than Just Friends” and the transcendent
Foreigner cover “I Want to Know What Love Is.”

Is there anything else that can be said about Madonna?
Kaballah blah blah blah divorce blah blah blah African child blah blah
blah. But what about her songs? If you’ve forgotten about the musician
behind the celebrity, Celebration — a two disc best-of with two
new tracks (plus a third on the iTunes version) — is here to remind us
how much we love the way she sounds. From late-disco hits “Holiday” and
“Borderline” to the slinky slut-fest of the underrated “Erotica”
through the alt-electro “Ray of Light,” 36 tracks produce an
unerring 2½ hour high. And that includes the two new cuts —
“Revolver” featuring Lil Wayne and the party-starting title track, both
new-styled Madge turns that can stand tall with her body of hits. And, there’s a bonus track on iTunes: the
slamming new disco jam “It’s So Cool” which is, well, so cool. (A Celebration DVD collection includes 47 MTV-tested videos.)

Like sipping a smooth cognac while the rain patters outside, Streisand’s latest studio album is pure sonic buttah. Guided by pianist/producer Diana Krall — that’s Mrs. Elvis Costello, alt-babies — Babs' jazzy Love Is the Answer takes on standards like Frank Sinatra’s “In the Wee Small Hours of the Morning,” Jacques Brel’s “If You Go Away (Ne Me Quitte Pas)” and affirming opener “Here’s To Life.” Now is it too much to ask that our favorite Funny Lady make another movie?

MUSIC NEWS

Warner Music Group has reportedly reached an agreement with YouTube and will restore all of its music videos to the video-streaming site. Warner pulled many thousands of videos off the site last December when the two companies could not come to terms on royalty rights.

"I Should Be So Lucky": Kylie Minogue's long-anticipated debut U.S. tour kicks off tomorrow night in Oakland, California. Over the next couple of weeks,
the performer, who enjoys a Madonna-style level of popularity outside of
America, will also hit Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Chicago, Toronto and New
York. Towleroad and Modern Tonic are giving away three pairs of tickets
to see Kylie at The Hollywood Bowl this Sunday, October 4. To enter to win, click here. Contest entry period ends Thursday September 30 at noon EST. 

 The
legendary Trevor Horn, producer of classic pop albums from The Art of
Noise, Frankie Goes To Hollywood, Propaganda and Grace Jones, on producing Robbie Williams' comeback album Reality Killed the Video Star. On a related note, rumors are flying that Williams just recorded new tracks with his former bandmates from Take That.

Britney Spears' new single "3,"
with the controversy-courting subject of the joys of being in a
threesome, debuted on New York's Z-100 this morning. It will be featured
on her second compilation, The Singles Collection, due November 24.

 The Hole Truth: Courtney Love opens up her bag of crazy.

Dolly Parton and Sylvester Stallone? Michael Jackson and Eddie Murphy? Plus more of the most painful musical pairings in memory.

On the heels of the "vintage" footage of Lady Gaga before her makeover, here is Katy Perry (then Katy Hudson) from 2001, a young Christian artist with blond pigtails.

MORE NEW RELEASES

Is there life after chill? London downtempo duo Zero 7 — and guest vocalists galore — say hell yeah on their fourth album Yeah Ghost.

Emo-boys, make sure your mascara is waterproof. Paramore, the Tennessee alt-rockers fronted by Hayley Williams, will make your wimp asses cry with their muscular third album Brand New Eyes.

Brazilian bossa nova babe Bebel Gilberto releases her sixth album, All in One. Sit back, sip a smooth caipirinha and let the sensual sounds of South America accompany you on your next staycation.

Also Released: Miranda Lambert — Revolution; Genesis — Live 1973-2007 Box Set; Hope Sandoval & the Warm Inventions — Through The Devil Softly; Patty Loveless — Mountain Soul II; Rod Stewart — The Rod Stewart Sessions 1971-1998 Box Set; Landon Pigg — The Boy Who Never; Karen O & The Kids — Where The Wild Things Are Soundtrack; Various Artists — Whip It (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack); Kris Kristofferson — Closer To The Bone; Newton Faulkner — Rebuilt By Humans (import)

MUSIC VIDEOS:

Priscilla Renea: “Dollhouse”
This fierce Floridian rips a page from The Veronicas' playbook with a punky tale of wrestling back control from her overbearing boyfriend. She starts like a little girl in her dollhouse until she grows too big to be contained. (From her debut album Jukebox, out December 1).

Snow Patrol: “Just Say Yes”
The earnest Scots, intoning from their forthcoming import compilation Up To Now, are a vision in white on another aching love song that will echo for years.

Amerie: “Heard ‘Em All”
If you want to get with this Korean-African American princess from Massachusetts, listen up. Amerie and her grimy futuristic dancers shimmy like Tina Turner herself through this tribal track from new album In Love & War (out November 3).

Ke$ha: “TiK ToK”
Flo Rida’s feisty collaborator on “Right Round” steps out for a night on the town in a clip that’s every suburban mother’s nightmare. She mouthwashes with a bottle of Jack, can’t keep the boys from touching her junk and interrupts the family meal in the latest slut chic her parents’ plastic can buy.

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WaPo: 7,000 gay men have helped study AIDS in the past 25 years.

Facebook kills poll asking if Obama should be killed. Secret service investigates. UPDATE: Secret Service tracks down user who posted it.

Too Much! Salaries of The Hills cast per episode.

"Ex-gay" group calls hate crime laws "anti-ex-gay": "According to PFOX, hate crime laws protecting gays and lesbians themselves constitute hate crimes against ex-gays.
Because if you tell people that they can’t beat up people because
they’re gay, you discriminate against the people who beat up gay people
because they are gay! It is you who are committing the “anti-ex-gay hate crime,” because if people aren’t allowed to hate gay people, how will PFOX ever find any ex-gay people?"

Atlanta Eagle court hearing postponed a second time.

Malaysia bans Sacha Baron Cohen's Bruno: "It's banned because the story is based on gay life … There are a lot
of sex scenes. It's contrary to our culture."

Isn't it a little early to hit the pumpkin patch, Hugh Jackman?

DJ AM death ruled accidental.

The Vatican defends its sexual abuse scandals by saying other churches are far worse, then claims their priests aren't pedophiles but homosexuals attracted to young men: "In a defiant and provocative statement, issued
following a meeting of the UN human rights council in Geneva, the Holy
See said the majority of Catholic clergy who committed such acts were
not paedophiles but homosexuals attracted to sex with adolescent males.…The
statement said that rather than paedophilia, it would 'be more correct'
to speak of ephebophilia, a homosexual attraction to adolescent males."

Maine's Catholics fast to save marriage.

Janet Jackson makes amfAR appearance in Milan.

NYT Consults blog on questioning teens: "In trying to understand sexual orientation, it can help a person to
think about who he or she has crushes on and fantasizes about being
with. A person doesn’t necessarily need to have a 'full' sexual
experience in order to understand his or her sexual orientation."

Australian court hears gay panic defense from two men in murder trial.

Gerard Butler pigs out, shows off his cock.

Mattel to offer Barbra Streisand doll.

Billboards in Wisconsin highlight LGBT neighbors: "The campaign is a first in Midwest history to be translated to Spanish,
and one of the firsts across the country. Digital billboards will be
featured on major commuter freeway paths, which include ads in Ozaukee,
Racine, Milwaukee and Waukesha Counties. The accompanying websites,
GayNeighbor.org and MiVecinoGay.org, answers basic questions in Spanish
and English about the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, & Transgender (LGBT)
community and issues they face."

The speech William Safire wrote for Richard Nixon if the astronauts were left stranded on the moon.

Rufus Wainwright: Cheese-eating Ken doll.

OMG interviews Karin Dreijer Andersson of Fever Ray and The Knife.

Graham Norton given warning about lesbian remark: "Norton, 46, and his programme team have now been warned about 'being
seen to endorse offensive sexual stereotypes' after a BBC investigation. This comes after a viewer complained about the remarks made about
an illustration of a jump suit invention, which showed a large woman
with short hair. The comic described the picture as showing a
'strange lesbian' and when asked what a lesbian looks like, he pointed
at the picture and said 'That!'."

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