Jezebel 
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New York, 2:27 PM
Thu Dec 10
71 posts in the last 24 hours
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12/02/09
12/02/09
12/02/09
The award would be if he told you he was going to stop.
12/02/09
12/02/09
This is awkwardly worded, but I think that's the sentiment Lee Daniels is going for. I hope he got more information from the man and reported it.
12/02/09
ohhhhh, yeah, right, got it.
12/02/09
12/02/09
12/02/09
12/03/09
12/02/09
12/02/09
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12/02/09
Unfortunately I'm going to guess the former...
12/02/09
The girl that's being abused probably couldn't give two shits about whether her dad feels bad about it or not, the point is, he's abusing her. So if Lee Daniels didn't try to stop it, I'm going to be angry.
12/03/09
Not directed at you, BTW---I've just had my damned fill of people saying-----FOR REAL---that a guy who called 2,300 'whores' 'just needs a hug'!!!!
12/03/09
12/02/09
12/02/09
I've tried to hold off on judging Lee Daniels, but he seems like a real idiot to me.
12/02/09
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12/02/09
'Well, I'm glad you feel bad about it. Now CUT IT OUT.'
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12/02/09
That would be pretty smashing.
11/04/09
I have a lot to say, so I hope I can focus here.
To start, I appreciate those who can answer to criticism and make an effort to articulate their thoughts. Edelstein is out of the gate, however, in total defense mode.
They believe my language reflects deep and both conscious and unconscious prejudices toward African-Americans, obesity, and the so-called "underclass."
Something I think is often glossed over, even on this site, is that we all have ingrained prejudices, on varying levels, and this is not always a negative thing. What's negative is when you fall back on these prejudices and look to them as a benchmark. Talk about it, put it out there, admit that you're not fucking perfect.
Of note, Sidibe herself makes a very interesting comment on the Ellen show along these lines. When Ellen asks if she knows anyone who experienced the life of Precious, where she pulled this character from, she responds with:
"When I read this book I realized that knew this girl...she's a real person, and I knew her in my family, and I knew her in my friends and I knew her in people I didn't want to know."
There's color, there's class, there's sexuality, there's gender, and there's humanity.
Also, there is no "so-called" underclass. There's an underclass.
I am also struck by the characterization of Precious as a "victim." Having just read the book, I've come away feeling that she very much is NOT a victim. At least not in the way Edelstein has framed it.
In fact, I found her to be a strong, hopeful and determined character, despite the horrific violence she survived.
And, I would like to thank the commenter (I've forgotten who) who assured me that the book was a "love letter" to literacy and the arts. If I took anything away from this story, it's how empowering education can be. You earn it, and no one can take it away. Not to be totally cheesy, but that really is a beautiful thing.
To say that the actress's or character's weight is "front and center" entirely misses the point. It's simply a character trait, like any other. What makes it noteworthy is that we as a society, and especially, it seems, Edelstein, are uncomfortable with it.
11/04/09
11/04/09
I think you're absolutely right about playing it as it lays and just owning up to prejudices and thinking about how it can make everyone look at a portrait of a character in a completely different manner. Because I think that what was lost in the NY Mag. review and truthfully, that's what made me so upset. There is this hope, inherent in all of the tragedy, that still lives. And it lives because her mind was freed by the power of literacy.
Stopping now. Not going to cry in my office. But yes, the book (and movie) is a love letter to the power of literacy and a call to action. At least, it was to me. #caterwaulingagainsttheworld
11/03/09
Rather than complaining that the star is somehow transgressive (another word for weird, strange yet in an offensive way), and how inexplicably violent some characters are, he would do better to absorb and reflect on what he saw. Learn that their are worlds outside of his own. It is one thing to disagree with a film if you think it somehow glorifies violence, but it is another to discount it entirely as unbelievable when there are very many voices saying the opposite. Shush, Edelstein, listen and learn. And continue to read Jezebel.
Sir, you thinking this film and this actress are transgressive is a reflection of your own life. Your own norms. Because Sidibe doesn't represent the normal HOLLYWOOD ACTRESS in no way makes her transgressive. In fact, I posit the true transgressives in America are Angelina Jolie and her ilk.
I think you are shocked and upset because you did not intend to offend. Yet the very limitations that led to this push back are preventing you from listening and absorbing what you hear. Stop digging the hole deeper with disingenuous explanations (lighting, etc.) and laughable examples (Angela Basset wide or large, are you kidding me?!). #caterwaulingagainsttheworld
11/03/09
Personally I think superficiality is underrated, not because it's good, but because it's powerful and omnipresent. The director would be a fool not to take into account the fact that many people will find Precious ugly, hard to relate to, and even "subhuman." I think what Edelstein meant to say is that the director consciously chose to embrace that aspect of her character, (for reasons that elude the critic), and that his reading of Sidibe as "jarring" was less a personal affront than a sense of what he thought the director meant to evoke.
I'm always leery of people who respond to blog comments, because they're so easy to characterize any which way. And I agree that Edelstein's calling Precious a "zeppelin" was in bad taste. That said, I read his review as a dissection of the director's artistic choices, rather than a sociological statement about what "the real world" is like. #caterwaulingagainsttheworld
11/04/09
11/04/09