By ThisGirl’s Jezza (Buenos Aires, Argentina)

Safe to assume you’ve seen Twilight: New Moon already? Then it’s time you check out Precious: Based on the Novel “Push” By Sapphire. I’ve heard some people say, “I don’t want to go to see that; it’ll bring me down” — but the truth is, thanks to its titular teen protagonist, the film is more hopeful than hopeless. The second excuse I’ve heard from Oscar pundits is that it’s too black a movie for white America. Wrong again: No place in the U.S. is immune to the kind of extreme domestic abuse that Precious endures. A third: It is neary impossible for the uber-hyped Precious to live up to the buzz brought by “presenters” Oprah Winfrey and Tyler Perry (that’s how they are credited) and director Lee Daniels. While that may be true, I liked this film. Here, six reasons why:

1. The thing I like most is that, while the title character has been beaten down by life and at one point even scribbles, “Why me?” on a piece of paper (I burst out in tears), Gabourey Sidibe’s Precious is never presented as a complete victim. At times, even with her monster of a mother (Mo’Nique), daughter gives as good as she gets. She’s a teen who is resilient despite having had the misfortune of being handed a bunch of really sour lemons.

Pre-Butterfly Carey is one to watch.

2. Mariah Carey did a nice job in a very small role as a welfare social worker. But I couldn’t help but wonder what Helen Mirren, who was director Lee Daniels’ first choice, would have done with the part.

Kravitz with “Precious” Sidibe

3. At 45 and playing a nurse’s aide, Lenny Kravitz is still sexy as hell.

4. Sidibe does a fine job peeling away the character’s various layers over the course of the movie. But I wonder how much of her growing acclaim (she’s now a possible spoiler in Meryl Streep’s bid for Oscar No. 2) is due to the fact that the actress is so elegant and poised in real life, quite different from the character she plays in the movie. I guess it is a good thing that people are seeing this. The name of the game is acting, and the more people see who Gabourey really is, the more people see that this was a performance and not an unknown simply playing herself.

5. And then there’s Mo’Nique. What a force of nature! Or the devil herself! Everyone’s talking about her monologue near the end of the movie, but to me the scene that should guarantee her an invitation to the Oscars is the one when Precious returns home after giving birth. From the sweet way she greets Precious before asking to hold the newborn, you can see the fire inside. Mo’Nique, playing way against type or image (see above, left), handles the scene flawlessly, exhibiting an entire movie’s worth of emotions in just a few minutes. By the time she’s hurling a television set over a balcony railing at Precious and her baby, it’s obvious that you’ve just witnessed a soon-to-be-legendary climactic scene for the ages.

6. Just before Mo’Nique’s epic monologue, there is a small scene with Precious, her young neighbor and the neighbor’s mother. It would have been a throwaway sequence were it not for the little girl’s black eye and her mother’s rotten, impatient attitude. Precious, who has spent the entire movie disregarding the girl and at one point even physically pushes her, seems to finally get the message. She gives the girl her scarf as a present. It’s a nice touch that says a lot about Precious’s year-long journey to self-determination.