2009 was a magical year for actress Gabourey Sidibe. Not only did her feature film debut in “Precious” get released across the world, but the young actress would go on to land nominations for Best Actress from the Independent Spirit Awards, the Golden Globes, and yes, even the Oscars. And though the last decade has been steady for Sidibe, as she’s appeared in a number of films and TV series, the actress recently discussed how she understands why the industry didn’t welcome her nearly as much as they did with someone like Anna Kendrick.

Continue reading Gabourey Sidibe Talks Career Struggles After ‘Precious’: ‘The Hollywood Seas Didn’t Part For Me” at The Playlist.

As we enter the most fraught back-to-school season in recent memory, Be Reel looks back at Hollywood’s conception of underserved students and the inspirational educators who rescue their learning.

This week, it’s “Stand and Deliver” (1988), “Lean On Me” (1989), “Dangerous Minds” (1995), and “Precious” (2009) as we diagram the myth of the savior teacher.

Continue reading The Power of One: Hollywood’s Favorite Teacher Myth [Be Reel Podcast] at The Playlist.

It’s been almost a decade since Lee Daniels released the award-winning film “Precious.” And while there were many people involved in that production that were singled out for their hard work, perhaps none were recognized as much as actress Mo’Nique. Looking at all the awards she was nominated for and eventually won, it’s staggering to see all the acclaim the comedian received for her incredibly unfunny and heartbreaking performance.

Continue reading Lee Daniels Still Bitter About Mo’Nique’s “Disrespectful” Comments And Says “She Needs To Shut Up” at The Playlist.

It’s a big week, gang. The Sundance Film Festival is still going strong, with more hotly-tipped movies set to premiere, while tomorrow sees one of the biggest events of the film year, with the announcement of this year’s Oscar nods, where Kenneth Lonergan’s “Manchester By The Sea,” one of the biggest hits of last year’s Sundance, is expected to be one of the most nominated films.

Continue reading The Sundance Film Festival’s 20 Biggest Oscar Success Stories at The Playlist.

The folks over at CineFix has dropped another insightful video countdown, this time focusing on “The 10 Supporting Roles That Stole the Show.”

As with any list, it’s purely subjective, but they are once again smart about how each slot is categorized by a different kind of supporting performance. The overall criteria for the list is supporting performances that clearly out-staged the lead performance, be it a higher A-lister than the lead with second billing (Christian Bale in “The Fighter”), one-scene wonders (Alec Baldwin in “Glengarry Glen Ross”), or unexpected turns from out-of-the-box casting (Mo’Nique in “Precious”).

Continue reading Scene Stealers: Supporting Roles That Stole The Show at The Playlist.

Also featured in the picture is Danny Trejo, in what seemingly serves as the first unveiling of the “Machete” actor as a cast member for this particular pic. James Gandolfini was previously revealed as a cast member for the self-described “Thelma & Louise” meets “Superbad” meets “Pulp Fiction” story of two teenage assassins who discover that their last job is not exactly what they expected.

Continue reading Set Photos From Geoffrey Fletcher’s ‘Violet & Daisy’ Starring Saoirse Ronan & Alexis Bledel Unveils Casting Of Danny Trejo at The Playlist.

The project was originally pegged as a cross between “Thelma And Louise,” “Superbad” and “Pulp Fiction” and will reportedly follow “a pair of teenage assassins who are lured into what is supposed to be just another quick and easy job, only to find complications as the man they’re supposed to kill is not what they expected.” The teenage assassin aspects conjure up images of HitGirl from “Kick-Ass,” but with the talent involved, this is probably a different kettle of fish.

Continue reading Saoirse Ronan & James Gandolfini Board Geoffrey Fletcher’s Indie Teenage Assassin Drama ‘Violet And Daisy’ at The Playlist.

But when you win an Academy Award (for your first screen credit no less), things change and you make that leap as soon as you possibly can because you may not have another shot (see Dustin Lance Black after “Milk”).

Thus it was announced in April that Geoffrey Fletcher, the screenwriter of “Precious: Based on the Novel Push by Sapphire” (he took the adapted screenplay award last year much to Jason Reitman’s shock), is already moving into the world of first-hand filmmaking.

Continue reading Bruce Willis & Danny Trejo May Join Carey Mulligan & Saoirse Ronan In ‘Precious’ Writer’s ‘Violet & Daisy’ at The Playlist.

The script by Fletcher is being described as “Thelma and Louise” meets “Superbad” and “Pulp Fiction” with “plenty of action and lots of girl power.”

While neither lead actress seemingly embody the action or comedy genre having carved a niche in more dramatic roles, their talent is unquestionable and should make for a seamless transition.

Continue reading ‘Precious’ Scribe Geoffrey Fletcher To Helm Black Comedy ‘Violet And Daisy,’ Saoirse Ronan And Carey Mulligan Attached To Star at The Playlist.

Maybe just to see the gowns and tuxes, maybe to point and snicker with fashion police-like glee or maybe you tuned in much like rubbernecking at a car wreck on the highway, its hard to turn away when those E! hosts ask those incredibly inane questions.

However, if you did tune in then you did see “Precious” star Lenny Kravitz tell dbag Ryan Seacrest that he would be making a reunion with Lee Daniels and appearing the filmmaker’s next picture, the civil rights drama, “Selma.”

Kravitz revealed was that he would be playing the civil rights activist Andrew Young, making him the third actor who has joined the film.

Continue reading Lenny Kravitz Joins Lee Daniels’ Civil Rights Drama ‘Selma’ With Robert De Niro & Hugh Jackman at The Playlist.

The intense action-based Iraq War film took six awards in total, including one for its director Kathryn Bigelow, who went down in the history books as the female director to ever win a Best Directing Academy Award prize.

Some argued the David vs. Goliath story over the blockbuster vs. the longtail award or the spectacle vs.

Continue reading ‘The Hurt Locker’ Win Best Picture & Tops The 2010 Academy Awards With 6 Awards at The Playlist.

We weren’t fans of “Precious,” but both Sidibe and Mo’nique deserved their wins as their performances were spellbinding and kept the film anchored even as Lee Daniels flailed about with his direction.

Continue reading ‘Precious’ Dominated At The Independent Spirit Awards at The Playlist.

Sure, there are always curve balls, surprises and whatnot, but if you pay a modicum of attention you should be able to guess at least 17 out of 24 picks correctly.

The season obviously changes and films fall in and out of favor, so there’s really no point in making several predictions during the year.

Continue reading The Playlist’s 2010 Oscar Predictions at The Playlist.

Continue reading 2010 BAFTAs – ‘The Hurt Locker’ Wins Best Picture, Dominates With 6 Awards at The Playlist.

Continue reading ‘Attica, Attica!’ Doug Liman To Direct Prison Riot Movie Penned By ‘Precious’ Scribe; Plus, Will ‘Fair Game’ Premiere At Cannes? at The Playlist.

We didn’t do predictions for this year’s 82 Annual Academy Awards because many of them seemed obvious and set and stone and as everyone expected, James Cameron’s “Avatar,” Quentin Tarantino’s “Inglourious Basterds,” Jason Reitman’s “Up In The Air,” Lee Daniels’ “Precious” and Kathryn Bigelow’s “The Hurt Locker,” all scored Best Director and Best Picture nods for their respective films.

Continue reading ‘Avatar’ & ‘The Hurt Locker’ Lead The 2010 Pack With 9 Oscar Nominations Each at The Playlist.

Continue reading ‘The Hurt Locker’ Bests ‘Avatar’ In The 2009 PGA Awards at The Playlist.

We were originally going to do two separate lists of Most Disappointing and Most Overrated films of 2009 but as we were getting it together, we realized that many of the films could have easily landed in both categories. We don’t necessarily hate the films below, but these are pictures that we went into with a lot of anticipation or had pre-built buzz that ultimately left us a bit cold (some obviously more than others, read on).

Continue reading The Most Disappointing & Overrated Films of 2009 at The Playlist.

The live-blogging starts now (yes, you’re really excited, we know): Below.

Here are the winners:

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS, DRAMA
WINNER: Mo’nique, “Precious”
Penelope Cruz, “Nine”
Vera Farmiga, “Up in the Air”
Anna Kendrick, “Up in the Air”
Julianne Moore, “A Single Man”

BEST ANIMATED FEATURE
WINNER: “Up”
Cloudy With A Chance Of Meatballs
Coraline
Fantastic Mr.

Continue reading ‘Avatar’ Wins Big At The 2009 Golden Globes at The Playlist.

Unfortunately, Carter Burwell won’t get his shot at Oscar this year, as the Academy has ruled that the overall soundtrack for “Where The Wild Things Are” is too heavily blended with Karen O’s pop tunes.

Continue reading Carter Burwell’s “Where The Wild Things Are” & “The Blind Side” Scores Disqualified For Oscar at The Playlist.

Continue reading ‘Up In The Air,’ ‘Basterds’ & ‘Precious’ Lead The SAG Nominees at The Playlist.

Most of the categories have at least 4 if not all 5 of the films the Critic’s noms included, and if we were to bet, we’d say the Oscar noms won’t be much different.

Continue reading ‘Up In The Air’ & ‘Nine’ Lead The 2009 Golden Globe Nominees at The Playlist.

Her Iraq War film, “The Hurt Locker” starring Jeremy Renner, Anthony Mackie and Brian Geraghty (with appearances by David Morse, Evangeline Lilly, Guy Pearce, and Ralph Fiennes) is basically now a shoo-in for an Oscar nomination.

Sure, we already figured this, but the deal has been sealed. How’s that? Well, both the New York Film Critics Circle Awards and the Los Angeles Film Critics Association have named the film their Best Picture in their respective awards released today and this weekend.

Continue reading ‘The Hurt Locker’ Is Now An Oscar Best Picture Nom Shoo-In: Takes Top LA/NY Critics Awards at The Playlist.

Or perhaps because we’ve paid less attention than usual. The “big four” ended up being mostly a big waste of time: Peter Jackson’s “The Lovely Bones” is — again, we’ll repeat this line cause it really fits — a tampon commercial set to the music of Enya (at least all those terrible fluffy CGI-heaven moments are), “Nine” was a major disappointment, “Invictus” is moderately rousing, but still an average-to-ok work and now we obviously have “Avatar” which was met with some surprisingly breathless reviews, despite being just enjoyable B-movie.

Continue reading The 2009 Season Almost Over: Checking The Oscar Temperature Once More at The Playlist.

Continue reading Weekend Box Office- When Does ‘Avatar’ Come Out Again? at The Playlist.