As Hollywood closed specialty divisions that aimed for quality and personal stories, as studios focus more and more on superhero sagas and action blockbusters, cinema fans have rightly wondered, who's left to make great American movies?
For one, the makers of "Precious: Based on the Novel 'Push' by Sapphire," who assembled some of the unlikeliest ingredients - Mariah Carey, Mo'Nique, and a lead actress plucked from an anonymous casting call - to create a wondrous work of art.
The film isn't easy to watch and will test your tolerance for despicable behavior as a long history of physical abuse and incest unfolds involving an illiterate, obese Harlem schoolgirl.
Yet "Precious" - both the film and its grandly resilient title character - will steal your heart. Lee Daniels, in just his second film as director, crafts a story that rises from the depths of despair to a place of genuine hope.
This isn't a fairy tale. "Precious" doesn't strain to present some happy-ever-after transformation that simply never could happen considering the harsh reality in which it's set.
Rather, the film reflects an inner spirit everyone can recognize, that role-playing game we indulge in to get us through our big and small hard times, imagining our lives are different, better. That we are different and better.
Claireece "Precious" Jones literally wills it to be so, and as played in a phenomenal screen debut by Gabourey Sidibe, she makes an utterly believable and electrifying rise from an urban abyss of ignorance and neglect.
Adapted from the novel "Push" by Sapphire - who taught reading and writing for eight years in Harlem, Brooklyn and the Bronx, to students like Precious and her peers - the film is simultaneously tender and savage as Precious learns to apply that simple verb: Push yourself, push your boundaries, if others try to stop you, push them out of the way.
(The film debuted as "Push" at January's Sundance Film Festival, where it won both the top jury prize and the award as the audience's favorite film; the title was changed to avoid confusion with Dakota Fanning's sci-fi adventure "Push," released last February.)
When we first encounter her, Precious is pregnant with her second child by her own father, who raped her repeatedly while her mother, Mary (Mo'Nique), looked the other way and later heaped abuse on her daughter out of jealousy and spite.
by The Associated Press
Now Botox for Breasts
It is the 21st century solution for new mothers desperate to look their best for a party or wedding. Injections of Botox into the bust tighten sagging cleavage, giving it back its pre-pregnancy perk.
With the treatment taking just half an hour, it is proving popular with busy young mothers who don't have time to go under the knife. But at £1,000 a session, doctors say it is best used as a one-off confidence-booster ahead of a special occasion, rather than as a regular treatment.
Sach Mohan, a surgeon with cosmetic surgery chain Transform, said: 'A young woman who has recently been pregnant might not have very much in her wardrobe that fits.
'But she is under pressure to look good just weeks after giving birth.
'This is another tool in their armoury.'
Dr Mohan recommends new mothers wait for at least three months after giving birth before signing up for 'Breastox', as it has been dubbed. An anaesthetic cream is used to numb the pain and the patient is given around 12 injections of Botox into the pectoralis minor chest muscle.
The freezing of this muscle causes other muscles in the back to strengthen, and the bust to lift. Wrinkles, caused by ageing, or just too much sun, are also smoothed. But the technique has its limits - breasts are not made fuller.
Gwen Davies, Transform's head of non-surgical treatments, said: 'Wrinkles on the chest area are very ageing and a dead giveaway to a lady's age, and sun-worshippers are most likely to suffer deeper set wrinkles.
'Sun damage rapidly ages the skin, leaving it wrinkly and saggy and unfortunately, while many women are cottoning on to wearing sun cream to protect their faces, they're not paying the same attention to their chests.
'Botox is now an accepted form of anti-ageing for the face, but our practitioners are constantly researching new ways it can be used to create a more youthful look on other parts of the body.' The technique is most suited to women in their 20s and 30s with A and B cup breasts.
The Botox takes around two weeks to take effect and last four around three months. Repeat treatments are possible but doctors say women looking for a more permanent fix would be better to have a breast uplift operation.
Although the initial outlay will be more, it will work out cheaper in the long term. Botox is most often associated with making faces look younger but has numerous other uses, including stemming heavy sweating and preventing teeth from grinding.
It can also be used in the treatment of migraine and is showing promise in easing some of the damage done by strokes. But other experts questioned if Botox has the power to make breasts more pert.
Fazel Fatah, president-elect of the British Association of Aesthetic Plastic Surgeons, said that injections were no substitute for surgery when it come so reshaping and repositioning breast tissue.
Source : The Daily Mail
With the treatment taking just half an hour, it is proving popular with busy young mothers who don't have time to go under the knife. But at £1,000 a session, doctors say it is best used as a one-off confidence-booster ahead of a special occasion, rather than as a regular treatment.
Sach Mohan, a surgeon with cosmetic surgery chain Transform, said: 'A young woman who has recently been pregnant might not have very much in her wardrobe that fits.
'But she is under pressure to look good just weeks after giving birth.
'This is another tool in their armoury.'
Dr Mohan recommends new mothers wait for at least three months after giving birth before signing up for 'Breastox', as it has been dubbed. An anaesthetic cream is used to numb the pain and the patient is given around 12 injections of Botox into the pectoralis minor chest muscle.
The freezing of this muscle causes other muscles in the back to strengthen, and the bust to lift. Wrinkles, caused by ageing, or just too much sun, are also smoothed. But the technique has its limits - breasts are not made fuller.
Gwen Davies, Transform's head of non-surgical treatments, said: 'Wrinkles on the chest area are very ageing and a dead giveaway to a lady's age, and sun-worshippers are most likely to suffer deeper set wrinkles.
'Sun damage rapidly ages the skin, leaving it wrinkly and saggy and unfortunately, while many women are cottoning on to wearing sun cream to protect their faces, they're not paying the same attention to their chests.
'Botox is now an accepted form of anti-ageing for the face, but our practitioners are constantly researching new ways it can be used to create a more youthful look on other parts of the body.' The technique is most suited to women in their 20s and 30s with A and B cup breasts.
The Botox takes around two weeks to take effect and last four around three months. Repeat treatments are possible but doctors say women looking for a more permanent fix would be better to have a breast uplift operation.
Although the initial outlay will be more, it will work out cheaper in the long term. Botox is most often associated with making faces look younger but has numerous other uses, including stemming heavy sweating and preventing teeth from grinding.
It can also be used in the treatment of migraine and is showing promise in easing some of the damage done by strokes. But other experts questioned if Botox has the power to make breasts more pert.
Fazel Fatah, president-elect of the British Association of Aesthetic Plastic Surgeons, said that injections were no substitute for surgery when it come so reshaping and repositioning breast tissue.
Source : The Daily Mail
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