Reel Thoughts: My Precious

Forget the hyped-up artificiality of the Saw films. The real horror show is the home life endured by the title character in Lee Daniels’ bleak but ultimately hopeful drama Precious, based on Sapphire’s 1996 novel Push.

Clareece “Precious” Jones (Gabourey Sidibe, in a true breakout performance) is an illiterate and obese teenager in 1987 Harlem. Pregnant with her second child and hated by her vicious mother (Mo’Nique, who should receive an Oscar nomination), Precious is given one last chance to make her vivid dreams come true when she is sent to an alternative school housed in an old hotel.


Her teacher, Ms. Rain (the gorgeous and elegant Paula Patton), works hard to break through Precious’ defenses and inadvertently teaches her a lesson in gay tolerance when Precious realizes that her mentor is a lesbian. The other person reaching out to Precious is her social worker Mrs. Weiss (well played by an unrecognizable Mariah Carey), who goads her into revealing the father of her two children.

The grittiness that out director Daniels evokes is hard to watch at times, especially Mo’Nique’s explosive abuse, but it’s necessary to allow us the happiness of seeing Precious become her own person. Sidibe is an utterly natural talent, hard to warm up to at first until she reveals the life that’s inside her imposing frame.


Mo’Nique plumbs depths of rage and violence few name actresses would ever reveal. Patton, who looks like a young Debbie Allen and possesses the same kind authority, is utterly lovely as the idealistic teacher. Carey, Lenny Kravitz (as Nurse John) and Sherri Shepherd (as school secretary Cornrows) are all great and let go of any vanity in favor of total commitment to their roles.

If you can stand the heat in Precious’ pressure-cooker kitchen, you’ll be rewarded with one of the best cinematic experiences of the year with Precious: Based on the Novel Push by Sapphire.

UPDATE:   Precious: Based on the Novel Push by Sapphire is now available on DVD and Blu-ray from Amazon.com.

Review by Neil Cohen, resident film critic of Movie Dearest and Phoenix's Echo Magazine.

Reverend's Interview: Poppins Fresh Men

Walt Disney’s cinematic masterpiece Mary Poppins has enthralled viewers since its original release in 1964. Based on a series of books by P.L. Travers about a “practically perfect” nanny with seemingly supernatural powers, the movie was a box-office hit and won a number of Oscars, including Best Actress for its first-time film star, Julie Andrews.

45 years later, Mary Poppins has become a smash on stage, thanks to wunderkind theatre producer Cameron Mackintosh (Les Miserables, The Phantom of the Opera). The current national tour makes its eagerly awaited southern California premiere November 15 at the Ahmanson Theatre in Los Angeles.

Movie Dearest was able to speak recently with not one but two gay, out cast members of the Mary Poppins ensemble. Troy Edward Bowles (who goes by “Eddy”) and Tom Souhrada were eager to discuss their backgrounds from the tour’s stop in Dallas following a six-month run in Chicago.


“This is the perfect show for me,” said the 34-year old Bowles. He joined the touring company after roles in the Broadway productions Chitty Chitty Bang Bang and The Pirate Queen, as well as the national tour of the Billy Joel-Twyla Tharp mash-up Movin’ Out.

“I grew up on a dairy farm in Idaho and just danced around all the time,” Bowles recounted. “It seemed inevitable that I would one day dance professionally. There weren’t many outlets for dance, though, so I got into gymnastics, which had a little dance.”

Bowles, who is, by his own admission, an “out and proud” gay man performing in traditionally family-friendly Disney fare, went to New York City following his high-school graduation. However, the former farm boy found Manhattan “overwhelming.” After a few weeks there, “I ended up going to the University of Utah, which was closest to my parents’ home,” Bowles said.


Mary Poppins is, according to the former gymnast turned dancer, “a highly choreographed show, and there’s so much character to the choreography.” The dances were staged by the acclaimed Matthew Bourne (best known for his all-male Swan Lake and the ballet version of Edward Scissorhands) with an assist from co-choreographer Stephen Mear.

Bowles, who also serves as the tour’s dance captain, singled out two numbers in the show as being particularly challenging. During the famous song “Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious”, the ensemble “spells out all the letters!” Also, “Step in Time”, Bowles says, “is a huge tap number and exhausting.”

This holiday season promises to be a high-profile one for Bowles. In addition to the LA engagement of Mary Poppins, he can be seen on the big screen — sort of — in Disney’s new, motion-capture digital version of A Christmas Carol. “I’m one of 14 dancers who play 100 characters in the big dance scene,” Bowles reports. “I was also Bob Hoskins’ (who plays Fezziwig) dance and stunt double.” All in all, the dancer reports, “It was an incredible experience.”


Bowles’ fellow ensemble member, Tom Souhrada, fell in love with the Mary Poppins movie at an early age. “It was such a big part of my youth,” Souhrada recalled. “It was actually the first movie I ever saw.”

Souhrada, who grew up in south Florida and is in his early 40’s, went on to say, “My sisters and I used to do little shows in our backyard, and Mary Poppins was one of them. When I heard they were doing a stage production, I got very excited.”

However, Souhrada’s eventual casting in the show proved unexpected. “Last fall, I did a show with an actress who had been cast in the Mary Poppins tour,” he said. “She called me one day to let me know the actor playing the Park Keeper had pulled out and told me to call my agent. I did, got an audition and got cast!”


Souhrada, who is single and lives in New York City, shared another special connection he has with Mary Poppins. Earlier in his career, he starred in a production of the 1920’s-set musical spoof The Boy Friend directed by its original star … Julie Andrews!

“After the show’s initial read-through, I was walking down the hall when I heard a proper, British, female voice behind me calling my name,” Souhrada said excitedly. “I turned around and all I could think was ‘Julie Andrews knows my name!’ Then it was ‘Julie Andrews is talking to me!’ She gave me a hug and all I could think was ‘Julie Andrews is touching me!’ She gave me a kiss on the cheek and I thought ‘Julie Andrews is kissing me’!”

About the current tour of Mary Poppins, Souhrada revealed, “It’s been an amazing experience, phenomenal. The creative staff has been amazing.” Regarding his fellow ensemble members, he said, “Most of the dancers are half my age, so I’m just trying to keep up!”


Both Souhrada and Bowles are excited about their show’s impending LA run. Bowles said, “I loved Mary Poppins on Broadway; I cried.” He continued, “There’s something about the tour that is more intimate; the set has been re-imagined for the tour, since it was so huge on Broadway.”

Mary Poppins is currently scheduled to play LA through February 7. For more information or to purchase tickets, visit the official website of the Center Theatre Group.

Interview by Rev. Chris Carpenter, resident film critic of Movie Dearest and the Orange County and Long Beach Blade.

Reverend's Reviews: Holy Hunter

Director-producer-writer Peter Rodger took an admirably ambitious project on when he decided to make Oh My God, a documentary opening today in Los Angeles and New York. Starting out in his native Australia, Rodger traversed 23 different countries and asked various people he encountered "What is God?" Rodger, disheartened by historic and current conflicts at least partly motivated by religious intolerance, was hoping to discover there is more that unites religious believers than divides.

The filmmaker interviews Roman Catholic priests, Hindu children, African bush people, Jewish rabbis, Buddhist monks, Muslim teachers, and even a Druid or two. Rodger also poses his question, somewhat inexplicably but magnanimously, to entertainers and fellow countrymen Hugh Jackman, Baz Luhrmann and Jack Thompson as well as to musicians Ringo Starr and Bob Geldof.

While a few of the interviewees in Oh My God have unique and illuminating things to say, many of the responses are simplistic and some are downright embarrassing. One reaches the conclusion fairly early in Rodger's gorgeously photographed but obnoxiously quick-cut-edited film that the question "What is God?" has no satisfactory nor universally agreeable answers, even among those who claim the same religion.


This is most apparent, disturbingly so, when Rodger speaks with a Muslim imam who states "To kill homosexuals is a good thing in the sight of God" according to the Koran, as well as with the leader of an Islamic institute in southern California who cites the same scripture in repudiating the imam's claim. Christians don't come off as any more unified, with various clergy and lay people giving divergent interpretations of the New Testament. A fundamentalist Christian woman in Texas who owns a gun shop implies that Christians have the responsibility to kill non-Christians should their presence and/or beliefs encroach too closely.

I came away from Oh My God not having learned much I didn't already know and disappointed by Rodger's shallow approach to trying to spark meaningful inter-religious dialogue. Still, the movie will likely be helpful to novices just starting out on the path of religious understanding. It may prove to be a valuable resource in that regard or for high school and college students. God knows Rodger's well-intentioned question remains an important one to ask, even if it is ultimately unanswerable.

Click here to watch the trailer for Oh My God.

UPDATE: Oh My God is now available on DVD from Amazon.com.

Review by Rev. Chris Carpenter, resident film critic of Movie Dearest and the Orange County and Long Beach Blade.

MD News Desk: Now Tweeting

For the past few months, the MD News Desk has been bringing you all the latest scoop on what's happening in the entertainment world a couple times of week. Well, in order to bring you the news as soon as it happens (or at least as soon as we hear about it), as of today the News Desk is moving ... to the Official Movie Dearest Twitter page!

There you'll find all the same stories and links as the MD News Desk usually provides (conveniently organized by MD department, from Cinematic Crushes to Women We Love, Out in Film to Videodrone), but in a more timely and efficient manner.

There are several ways to keep up-to-date on all of our informative "tweets". If you have your own account on Twitter, all you have to do is follow us, or you can also receive updates automatically by friending us on the Official Movie Dearest MySpace page. Or you can simply refer to the MD News Desk on Twitter widget located in the upper left hand sidebar of each page right here on Movie Dearest.