'Precious' Gets Six Oscar Nominations

One of the things I love to do I go to my local multiplex and watch my fave movies when they come out. The last one I've had a chance to see was the Lee Daniels directed film 'Precious' and it's making some movie and Black history of its own.

'Precious' was nominated for six Academy Awards including Best Picture.

Lee Daniels became only the second African-American director to garner a Best Director nod (John Singleton was the last for 1991's 'Boyz In The Hood'). 'Precious' also holds the distinction of being the first African-American directed film in the 82 year history of the Oscars to be nominated for Best Picture.

"After 82 years, it's the first film nominated for best picture directed by an African-American," Daniels said. "Isn't that great? It's so exciting."

Lee Daniels wasn't the only one getting Oscar kudos. The movie was based on the novel "Push" by Sapphire, and also earned a Best Adapted Screenplay nomination.

Gabourey Sidibe earned a Best Actress nomination in her debut film, and Mo'Nique is up for Best Supporting Actress for her role in 'Precious' as well.

In addition to 'Precious' six nominations, Morgan Freeman received a Best Actor nomination for playing Nelson Mandela in 'Invictus', and Disney received a Best Animated Feature nomination for 'The Princess And the Frog'

Hmm. Looks like I'll have multiple reasons to watch the Oscars March 7 telecast this year.

School Daze-Straight And Nappy

School Daze is one of my favorite Spike Lee movies even though it was released in 1988. One of the issues that he brought up in this film is the contentious one of our hair.

Here's the musical take on that age old community discussion from the movie.

RIP Octavia St. Laurent

The Paris Is Burning movie came out as I was early into my own transition. One of the people I was captivated by and resolved to meet one day was Octavia St. Laurent.

The closest I've come to making that happen was when the funeral for Amanda Milan happened in 2000 and at the last minute I couldn't get the time off to go.

I wish I had. She gave a moving and fiery eulogy for Amanda that day on which she said, "Gays have rights, lesbians have rights, men have rights, women have rights, even animals have rights. "How many of us have to die before the community recognizes that we are not expendable?"

Sadly, that's not going to happen.

I just received the word that Octavia St. Laurent passed away May 17. Still trying to get the who, what, when, where, why and how details, and will pass them on to you as I find out.

In the interim, check out this video from Paris Is Burning.



Rest In Peace sis.

New Star Trek-Wow!

Just arrived back home from my local multiplex from watching the rebooted JJ Abrams directed Star Trek movie, and all I have to say is-wow!

I'm a Trekkie that watched the original series, Next Generation, DS9, Voyager and even Enterprise. I loved how this movie reintroduced us to all the characters we know and love and how the new actors stayed true to the original portrayals but put their own spin on them in some cases.

It even managed to surprise me with a well known producer-director playing a Starfleet admiral, but I won't spoil the surprise if you haven't seen the movie yet.

Here's the trailer for it, enjoy.



The best news is that the entire cast of the rebooted movie have been signed up to do two more pictures, and after watching this one can't wait to see what they come up with next.

Moni's Make Me Laugh Movies

Whenever I'm in one of those moods that even Blue Bell won't get me out of (like I was during the Christmas holidays), I have a few movies stashed in my ever expanding DVD collection that are guaranteed at minimum to put a smile on my face or make me double over in laughter.

So what are those movies? Glad you asked inquiring TransGriot reader!



Here's Moni's Make Me Laugh Movie List. Tyler Perry's Why Did I Get Married? is definitely going to to be added to this list once it comes out on DVD.



1-Blazing Saddles



2-Fast Times At Ridgemont High

3-The Blues Brothers

4-Undercover Brother



5-House Party

6-Friday

7-Next Friday

8-Friday After Next

9-Animal House



10-Hollywood Shuffle

11-I'm Gonna Git You Sucka

12-Ace Ventura Pet Detective

13-The Brothers

14-Soul Plane



15-School Daze

Why Did I Get Married?

I'm a movie junkie, and this is one I'm definitely looking forward to seeing when it hits my local multiplex on its projected release date of October 12.

Tyler Perry returns in front of a camera for the first time since Madea's Family Reunion, but you won't see Tyler's pistol packing alter ego in this story adapted for the big screen from the hit play of the same name.

Why Did I Get Married? stars an ensemble cast that in addition to Perry, includes Janet Jackson, Malik Yoba, Jill Scott, Sharon Leal, Tasha Smith, Michael Jai White, Denise Boutte and Lamann Rucker.

Hmm. That's worth the price of admission and a large buttered popcorn alone. ;)

Why Did I Get Married? is the story about how difficult it is to maintain a solid loving relationship in modern times. It revolves around a group of eight married college friends who have gathered for their annual reunion in the snow-capped mountains of Colorado.


They discover that infidelity has creeped into one couple's marriage. It triggers a series of events over the reunion weekend in which secrets are revealed and they question how valid and solid their own marriages are. Both the husbands and wives also take hard looks at their own lives during this weekend as well.



This looks like another Tyler Perry hit. The trailers are already on The Net and I'll definitely be sitting in the front row next month happily munching my popcorn.