Precious: Based on the Novel 'Push' by Sapphire (2009)
Movie · 2009 · Drama · 1h 50m · R · English
Curator score: 7.0/10 (269.3K ratings)
For precious girls everywhere.
Overview
In Harlem in 1987, Claireece "Precious" Jones is a 16-year-old African American girl born into a life no one would want. She's pregnant for the second time by her absent father, and at home she must wait hand and foot on her mother, an angry woman who abuses her emotionally and physically. School is chaotic and Precious has reached the ninth grade with good marks and a secret – she can't read.
Ratings
Curator score: 7.0/10
IMDb: 7.3/10
Letterboxd: 3.75/5
Rotten Tomatoes: 92%
Metacritic: 78
TMDB: 7.3/10
Director
Lee Daniels
Production
Smokewood Entertainment Group, Lee Daniels Entertainment
Cast
Gabourey Sidibe, Mo'Nique, Paula Patton, Mariah Carey, Sherri Shepherd, Lenny Kravitz, Stephanie Andujar, Chyna Layne, Amina Robinson, Xosha Roquemore, Angelic Zambrana, Aunt Dot, Nealla Gordon, Grace Hightower, Barret Helms, Kimberly Russell, Bill Sage, Susan Taylor, Kendall Toombs, Alexander Toombs
Curator Review
Verdict
A brutal, emotionally direct coming-of-age drama anchored by fearless performances and a clear sense of lived-in pain. It can be punishing and occasionally stylized to the point of melodrama, but the film’s empathy, visual imagination, and lead performance make it a powerful watch.
Best for
viewers who can handle intense abuse and trauma on screen
fans of raw performance-driven dramas
audiences interested in stories about resilience, literacy, and survival
people drawn to emotionally heavy but ultimately humanistic films
Skip if
you want a light or uplifting drama
you’re sensitive to depictions of child abuse, incest, and neglect
you dislike heightened, sometimes abrasive visual style
you prefer subtle, understated storytelling
Overview
Lee Daniels makes a film of extremes: appalling cruelty, flashes of fantasy, and moments of hard-won tenderness. That combination can feel overwhelming, but it gives Precious a jagged emotional shape that matches the character’s inner life. The movie never pretends the world is fair; it insists on showing how survival can begin in the smallest acts of self-recognition.
Worth noting
Gabourey Sidibe’s performance is the film’s center of gravity, and Mo’Nique is terrifyingly effective as a mother whose abuse is both personal and systemic. The supporting cast helps widen the film beyond pure suffering, especially in the classroom scenes, where the possibility of care and dignity starts to emerge.
Bottom line
It is not an easy recommendation, and some viewers will find the style too blunt or the misery too relentless. But for those willing to sit with it, Precious is a devastating, memorable drama about breaking a cycle and imagining a life beyond it.
Top Letterboxd reviews
andre 🎧 (4★) · 2913 likes
for precious girls everywhere
natalie (3.5★) · 2252 likes
i'm gonna break through or somebody gonna break through to me ᭝ ࣪˖ ཐིཋྀ
very difficult to watch. heartbreaking to think about how this is a reality for many. precious deserves the love and happiness she dreams of
Lars Henriks (5★) · 1952 likes
Shot like The Office, edited like Requiem for a Dream, written like a fairytale by Hans Christian Andersen (the guy without the happy endings). To me, this movie delivered its unapologetically dark and depressing story perfectly. Humerous and never exploitative for a second, deeply human but merciless, entertaining but never soft, never sweet. I laughed, I cried, I marveled at the ingenuity, I was surprised by the plot again and again- I got everything I could possibly want from a movie. Perfection! Only the tagline is tacky.