Precious: Based on the Novel 'Push' by Sapphire · reception & legacy
2009 · Lee Daniels
How Precious: Based on the Novel 'Push' by Sapphire has been received, argued over, and remembered.
The arc
A Sundance 2009 sensation (it won both the Grand Jury Prize and Audience Award) that rode an Oprah-and-Tyler-Perry-powered wave to six Oscar nominations — then weathered a fierce backlash over whether it was empathy or exploitation, a debate that still defines how it's discussed more than the film itself.
What's debated
The perennial fight: is it a raw, compassionate portrait or 'poverty porn' trading in stereotypes — a split crystallized by Armond White's notorious pan, which became almost as famous as the film.
Its footprint
Its gloriously unwieldy full title — 'Based on the Novel Push by Sapphire' — became a running cultural joke, endlessly parodied in mock movie titles; the film's afterlife is also inseparable from Mo'Nique's years-long public feud with Lee Daniels and Oprah over promoting it, which she said got her blackballed.
Where it stands
Remembered above all as the delivery vehicle for Mo'Nique's all-timer of a supporting performance — a divisive awards-era touchstone people revisit to argue about rather than a cozy favourite.