comment #1

gogocrank10 says ...

"Yo, why not? Smack her down for the fun of it. Give like you get."

Ha, Jeff, you're like the movie writer equivalent of a heartless abusive ghetto mama!

comment #2

televisiontears says ...

When most people do something "just for the hell of it", it's usually an impromptu visit to some obnoxious club. Or skydiving.

Not Jeff Wells.

comment #3

Andrea says ...

Bahaha! Love it Jeff!!

I hope you take her down. Her performance wasnt even that great and her smugness is almost as unattractive as she is.

comment #4

DeeZee says ...

'Apes Reloaded and Robocop get shelved.
http://www.darkhorizons.com/news/16032/-robocop-apes-remakes-shelved
Ghost Writer date+trailer.
http://www.darkhorizons.com/news/16031/-ghost-writer-gets-dates-trailer
Eva drops Ghost Rider 2.
http://www.darkhorizons.com/news/16029/michael-de-luca-talks-ghost-rider-2-
Cameron will probably remake Barefoot Gen to be more Titanic-ey.
http://www.darkhorizons.com/news/16028/james-cameron-options-hiroshima-story
Anyone want more Twister and Mannequin? [I can't wait for the Weekend @ Bernies remake myself...]
http://www.darkhorizons.com/news/16030/twister-momma-joe-mannequin-sequel-talk
New Kick-Ass trailer.
http://www.themoviebox.net/movies/2009/IJKLM/Kick-Ass/trailer.php
From Paris w/ Love Int'l. trailer.
http://www.themoviebox.net/movies/2010/From-Paris-With-Love/trailer.php

comment #5

Mr. F. says ...

"Carr Does Mo'Nique": aka, "Worst porno ever."

comment #6

DeeZee says ...

Oh, and Angie gets dropped from ad for being too famous.
http://omg.yahoo.com/blogs/a-line/angelina-jolie-replaced-in-ad-campaign/337/?nc

comment #7

jse33 says ...

In just a couple of months, we're going to be living in a world where Jennifer Hudson AND Mo'Nique have more Oscars than Ian McKellen.

comment #8

PopcornEyeglass says ...

"You'd think that Carr would at least take note of this, but no."

Did you read Lee Daniels' Sunday Times interview where he basically said that he's the real director of Monster's Ball? You would think that Lionsgate could come up with someone a little more tactful to play awards-campaign policeman if that's really what's happening.

Also, Jeff, you are the physical embodiment of harrumphing.

comment #9

bobbyperu says ...

Jeff, might you do us all a favor and step back, do a search and then tally all of your Mo'Nique hit pieces (though you initially praised her) and then ask yourself why you continue propagating such blatant and biased nastiness that goes far beyond Mo'Nique's Oscar chances and is somewhere unlikable inside of you?

To call your Mo'Nique obsession extreme would be charitable. First you praise her for being very good in the film, which you also praise. Then you hate her. Then you hate the film. Then it's her weight that's a problem. Then she misspoke. Ad nauseum.

This excerpt, from Carr's piece, seems perfectly acceptable and non-controversial to me:

"I've been asked the question before," she said, "and it's like, guys, I also have this show called 'The Mo'Nique Show' where I tape six shows a week. I have twins who are 4, so I have babies, I have an amazing husband and a son who's 19. What I can participate in I am more than happy to."

Jeff, hate to burst your bubble of belief that everyone is a cinephile who lives in some blogging fantasy-land of politicking and handicapping awards and spinning around tirelessly about grain on Blu-rays and how the "Eloi" tastebuds don't jive with your own rarified ones, while trying tirelessly (and unsuccessfully) to influce movie awards (Carey Mulligan, anyone? Streep stinks in Julie & Julia)...

But Mo'Nique really probably doesn't find any of these axes you grind central to her priorities and she likely took a job, acting in a movie, gave it her all, and then went on to the next job. It ain't like she's an A-list actress with tons of offers and time to play games from coast to coast schmoozing. And you know, you really oughta respect that attitude with all of the transparent ass-kissing bullshit and backstabbing that goes on in this town.

For the record, a couple weeks back Mo'Nique did a really solid interview on The Joy Behar show where she discussed her own abusive past, offered some interesting insights on the midset of abusers and was genuinely gracious when Joy mentioned she was rooting for her come Oscar season. Mo'Nique's reaction? "From your mouth to God's ear, Joy, thank you very, very much." She also went on to praise Gabby Sidibe, etc., not using the airtime to talk about her work in the film which she easily could have done given her limited time to campaign.

And I get it, you've got your Eddie Murphy on this year with Mo'Nique, or your Chicago, or your whatever, but it's mighty strange that you went from thinking Mo'Nique gave a good performance to hating the character of Mary Jones (as if that implies anything but praise for Mo'Nique) to loathing the actress herself, in an odd act of transference from screen to reality.

So continue building your case as history shows us that you will, but know that your quasi-backlash against Mo'Nique has little credence or momentum beyond your own blog and maybe the inflated egos of the self-deemed "elite" NYFCC (oh and that boob, Tom O' Neill). You've been diminished by other blogs who find this whole thing distasteful and now you've made The New York Times, however sarcastically so.

Lastly, I've met Mo'Nique a couple times and out of curiosity, have you? She's upbeat, bubbly and a zillion miles away from that heinous monster in Precious, and if you don't think that's great acting, I don't know what you are smoking.

comment #10

dggunz says ...

Well said, bobbyperu.

comment #11

Jeffrey Wells says ...

Wells to bobbyperu: Mo'Nique does a very good job of playing an absolutely heinous monster. Bully for her. She did well in this regard. I just don't understand why everyone has felt obliged to sing her praises as the one and only absolute best in her category, bar none. From the award season get-go it's been "Mo'Nique, Mo'Nique, No'Nique," etc. It's been a pure herd-mentality stampede all the way.

And I really love how guys like you try and slap me down when I'm one of the very few to say, "Wait a minute, is she really that terrific? Is it that difficult to portray venality? Isn't there something profoundly monstrous about the person she's brought to life, and is this feat really worth celebrating? Does the consensus, in any event, have to be completely unanimous?" You try standing against the herd and tell me how it feels. You're my idea of a bully.

I know she's going to win. The mob has decreed it. But I know how I felt as I watched her performance and as her character sank into me, and I know her rube attitude rubs me the wrong way, and this is how I feel.

I didn't jump into another "bash Mo'Nique" piece on my own today. I responded to what David Carr wrote, and I made a couple of good points, I think. Part of what this column is about is reacting to other journalists , of course.

comment #12

guy says ...

"Wait a minute, is she really that terrific? Is it that difficult to portray venality?"

It's certainly not that difficult to write with venality...

comment #13

bobbyperu says ...

WELLS: I just don't understand why everyone has felt obliged to sing her praises as the one and only absolute best in her category, bar none. From the award season get-go it's been "Mo'Nique, Mo'Nique, No'Nique," etc. It's been a pure herd-mentality stampede all the way.

So because a herd or majority of people think her performance was deeply affecting, powerful, whatever, that somehow invalidates it for you because you, as we know, like to stand apart from the Eloi? Is this about you taking an individual stand or about the merit of the performance?

The herd of people celebrating her performance can see that it was an unexpected stretch and that killer closing monologue sealed it. If an actor can work up that level of pathos and wrangle with demons as dark as she does in that final scene, then he or she is the real deal in my book.

And this is why she's turning heads, Jeff, because that scene is a dramatic anomaly as far as today's movies go; because we seldom see something that exposed; and because it came from a comedienne who starred in "Mo'Nique's F.A.T. Chance" and "Hair Show." That is why everyone is on this ra-ra Mo'Nique bandwagon. It's not liberal guilt and that suggestion is a knee-jerk dismissal that seems unfair.

I'm hardly the world's greatest fan of Precious -- I find it clumsily directed, uneven and awkardly amateurish at times -- but I'm giving Mo'Nique credit where it's due and she is the best thing in this film, and that character of Mary Jones is a very credible villain who, I'm going to say it, is also a victim of her own ignorance and terrible choices, and she knows it by the end when she can't even remember what month her own daughter was born.

So when you say that she plays two notes in the whole film, and they are nothing but evil, you really should go back and see the nuances of that final scene again because I know you have only seen the film....once.

And after only one viewing nine months ago, I do think in order to support your harsh stance against this character and actress you owe it to yourself and readers to at least take another look since it bowled you over emotionally the first time. Why not revisit your screener. It's only a movie. If it had this strong of a reaction in you, might be worth it to look with distance this time.

WELLS: And I really love how guys like you try and slap me down when I'm one of the very few to say, "Wait a minute, is she really that terrific? Is it that difficult to portray venality? Isn't there something profoundly monstrous about the person she's brought to life, and is this feat really worth celebrating? Does the consensus, in any event, have to be completely unanimous?" You try standing against the herd and tell me how it feels. You're my idea of a bully.

First, not slapping you down, Jeff, just this wrongheaded tirade of yours. As far as potraying a character this evil goes, I don't think anyone would say it is a piece of cake to bring a black hole like Mary to life onscreen, because you have to "go there" as an actor. As memorably said in Michael Mann's Manhunter, it's a "mind scent" thing and to get inside that heinous skin isn't a walk in the park if you're doing your job, which it seems to me that Mo'Nique was. So yes, it's probably "that hard" to get something so dark, so right. It's not just yelling and bitching up there onscreen when Daniels calls "action."

As far as whether or not it is worth "celebrating" a character so "profoundly monstrous," this has been your most dumbfounding argument during this whole season -- because it is totally irrelevant.

Mary Jones is a WORK OF FICTION. Her crimes aren't real. She can't receive retribution. We're not "in" the film when we watch it, we're at a distance and from that vantage point. I don't know about you, but I wasn't vicariously there in that fleabag hellhole apartment.

So hell yes, it is worth celebrating, because it's scary and memorable, and an Oscar to Mo'Nique is not endorsing Mary Jones' or any other abusive monster's awful choices, just an acting stretch, no more or less.

WELLS: I know she's going to win. The mob has decreed it. But I know how I felt as I watched her performance and as her character sank into me, and I know her rube attitude rubs me the wrong way, and this is how I feel.

Fair enough if Mo'Nique's attitude rubs you the wrong way but her remarks during this season, dating back to early October, have been reported second-hand, sometimes taken out of context and otherwise.

And by that, I mean that when she's dishing with Henson and Howard, probably friends of hers, and she's a comedienne who traditionally doesn't give a shit about what people think of her (weight or otherwise), and she talks about being able to "eat" an Oscar, she's not someone that is known to be an establishment player so it just sounds like some kind of slight.

But I think it's more of a brassy joke. I could be wrong. She is who she is, rough edges and all. And if she'd get out there on the PR tours, Hollywood would see what she's like in person -- fun and gracious -- and those silly comments would easily fall away.

As far as her character "sinking in" to you and making you feel badly, that's just another way to say how effective she was in the role.

WELLS: I didn't jump into another "bash Mo'Nique" piece on my own today. I responded to what David Carr wrote, and I made a couple of good points, I think. Part of what this column is about is reacting to other journalists , of course.

Jeff, you know very well that even when you are not writing formal pieces dissing her, you're referring to her in terms that have subtle implications. For example, a day or so ago when reporting on her latest critics' win, you referred to her as a "BET talk show host" -- and the message was clear.

Love your site, but this Mo'Nique stuff is a drag. You called me a bully, and I'm happy not to be. How about you?

comment #14

plastiqueelephant says ...

While I very much admire Mo'Nique for her position on campaigning, I also find Jeff's position pretty fucking hysterical. All the more so because although the woman in question doesn't seem to give a rat's arse, it gets so many other people's knickers in a twist.

For my part, wish Rosamund Pike should get the statue just for that look of utter revulsion during the Albert Square concert in An Education. Girl went to Cambridge, is cultured as shit and that the idea that classical music could elicit such horror made me laugh more than any in the Hangover.

comment #15

cleopatrajones says ...

bobbyperu, I'm so attracted to you right now.

comment #16

plastiqueelephant says ...

BobbyPeru: Each to their own, but for me Mariah Carey absolutely stole that last scene. In my book that should have been the icing on the cake for her nomination.

comment #17

bobbyperu says ...

PLASTIQUE:

Carey nailed that final scene and each of her earlier ones, especially the moment where she tries to tease the rape confession out of Precious ("What did you just say?"). The final scene is really an acting marathon and she "holds court" at that desk, maneuvering her reactions bewteen the mother and daughter, doling out revulsion and compassion at the same time. I had no idea Mariah could do that, but she did, and I'm so glad that very big, little performance of hers happened.

CLEOPATRA:

Shucks...

comment #18

plastiqueelephant says ...

Agreed, me too. For all the hate Daniel's is getting (and I'm only somewhat positive on Precious myself) it's pretty clear that guy has an almost ludicrous talent for directing actors.

comment #19

Andrea says ...

The bottom line, she wasnt even that good.

I was much more impressed with some of the quiet moments in Vera Farmiga and Julianne Moore's performance than the baby throwing tv throwing scream scream cry cry usual schtick that people swallow up and gush over every awards season.

But I guess Farmiga and Moore cant possibly contend with the great Mo'nique in an acting contest.

comment #20

bobbyperu says ...

Andrea,

So she "wasn't that good" eh? Not sure what criteria you are using, but I'm not going to get into a war on this one.

Farmiga and Moore are better actresses than Mo'Nique who happen to have gotten much less interesting and challenging roles. Both were quite good (particularly Moore), but Farmiga's character in particular isn't that deep or interesting minus her airport confessional with Kendrick, nor does she strike any recognizable human chords. She actually distances herself from the audience through the sheer independence of the character and her emotionless reaction at the end.

On the other hand, Mo'Nique got the right role in the right film with the right scene. Serendipity. And it's a lot more than screaming and throwing a baby.

comment #21

Gordon27 says ...

"You try standing against the herd and tell me how it feels. You're my idea of a bully. "

And you're a lot of people's idea of a racist, especially when you pepper your anti-Mo'Nique posts with what seems to be inadvertant racism.

I mean, there's no excuse for: "She stands her ground, he down wit dat." when you're trying to justify to all of your readers that your position is based solely on the merit of her performance and has nothing to do with her race/the race of the film.

comment #22

Andrea says ...

Awwww it took nearly 21 comments this time but we finally got the annual You a racist post.

comment #23

Wiggumx says ...

I now want to read bobbyperu's blog. This was the best thread about Jeff's non-stop war against Monique that we've had, and we owe it all to bobbyperu's no-nonsense, no-bullshit posts. Jeff, you have to give this up. Bobbyperu made calm, simple points and you called him a bully. Really? You have to know at this point that you're wrong. And yet you're pulling a DeeZee by digging your heels in and trying to grasp at whatever arguments you can find on this rather than admit that you might be a tiny bit wrong. As a guy who has read you since the poopshoot, it's sad to witness.

Also, what Gordon said. If you truly don't have any racial inclinations on this, why do you slide into "he down wit dat/Yo, why not? Smack her down" when you talk about this? This isn't how you post, ever, on any other topic.

comment #24

Gordon27 says ...

"Awwww it took nearly 21 comments this time but we finally got the annual You a racist post."

Ah, but if you notice, I'm the one who's been giving him the benefit of the doubt for a while now on this thing, hoping that he would understand that he should tone down that aspect of his argument if he really wants to be taken seriously on the subject. He doesn't, so a lot of people just write him off as a racist. And then he uses that in his response, when he'll just dismiss it and say "You see? Everybody's afraid to criticize this movie because they'll be called a racist!"

Actually, now that I think about it, he's probably doing it on purpose.

comment #25

fred says ...

Excuse me, I am a foreigner. So, I understand that :

1) Meryl Streep is going to win an Oscar this year, because she's overdue.
2) Bigelow is going to win an oscar this year because she's a woman.
3) Mo'nique (it means "Mo fucks" in French) is going to win an Oscar because she is "black",

OK, OK, easy to understand. But may I ask a question : Are we talking about cinema here ?? I think we are talking about politics, and I would even say about American politics.

comment #26

Gordon27 says ...

Fred - I still don't believe they're going to give Streep an Oscar for 'Julie and Julia'. I think Bullock's going to steal it.

comment #27

moveable hype says ...

Adam Corolla had a funny bit about a couple of horrible comedies awaiting release that will proclaim 'starring Academy Award winner Mo'nique'

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