“Genuine Primitive”
For an article in Vanity Fair.com’s “Little Gold Men,” Mark Olsen has summarized “the Mo’Nique Problem.” He quotes Tom O’Neil and myself.
Mo’Nique in Precious.
“Mo’Nique’s spotty campaign and the certainty of her winning the Oscar is proof that you don’t have to campaign as much as most publicists think you have to,” I say toward the end of the piece. “IF, that is, you’re the only real standout in your category and IF you’ve got every critics group going ‘baaaah!’ and giving you a win almost every time at bat. Plus there was never a strong Mo’Nique alternative choice.”
“Mo’Nique is a cable-TV talk show host and stand-up comic,” says O’Neil. “Who knew she was even an actress before Precious? Normally, a star like her needs to campaign to win, but she’s benefitting this year from a lack of competition and, as she continues to win award after award this derby season, her winning streak suggests a shocking thought: Hey, maybe you can really refuse to campaign and still win!”
Fair warning: Anyone who complains that I’m harping on Mo’Nique again will be immediately banned for life. I’m simply linking to a well-written summary by a well-respected journalist on a high-profile site.
the award is for best performance thats it, you dont even have to be a seasoned or well connected actor, you just have to be the best and this year she is, hands down.
Don’t expect many responses.
Whatever.
Interesting that there weren’t any links last week when everyone was saying that the Globes speech elevated her.
Not that you have a dog in this race…
“Mo’Nique’s spotty campaign and the certainty of her winning the Oscar is proof that you don’t have to campaign as much as most publicists think you have to”
And Sandra Bullock’s proves that you do.
“Who knew she was even an actress before Precious?”
I knew she was attempting to be, because I had to review every goddamn one of her previous movies.
If every awards voter had been through that, no way they’d have picked her.
In real life, psychopaths and serial killers don’t charm you with winks and smiles and witty asides. They make you piss your pants before they beat, torture and kill you.
Unlike most actors playing villains, Monique doesn’t make it easy for the audience. I think that’s why some people have had such a violent reaction to her and the character. Fortunately, most awards voters are able to separate the actress from the character.
If she loses the Oscar, does that make it any less worthy a performance? Why the hell should she campaign?
ironically she campaigned her ass off for Soul Plane
Jeff, for once I agree with you completely. I really hope Kendrick wins.
Just curious as to what you were feeling when Marlee Matlin was up for (and won for) “Children of a Lesser God”.
“the award is for best performance thats it, you dont even have to be a seasoned or well connected actor, you just have to be the best and this year she is, hands down.”
I’m with Van Smith. Comedians, singers, even mimics have been nominated for acting awards…and as far as having no competition — had Marion Cotillard been in the running she would have competition, but the critics chose to overlook her performance in PE. To me it was a sterling performance, memorable.
And yeh, “Who knew?” she was an actress….she considers herself a comedian talk-show host, and after this she will go back to it. She’s going on a country-wide tour (BTW, she’s not MY kind of comedian, I don’t particular like her standup)….I don’t think you’ll see her in any drama roles after Precious….she’s probably going back to supporting roles in comedies.
Her non-campaign is her campaign. The whole thing with missing whatever award ceremony to take a vacation with her kids? It shows voters unfamiliar with Mo’Nique the difference between the person and the character.
Jennifer Hudson, anyone?
I will talk about this only from an Oscar perspective but this article is kind of wrong in that respect. Mo’Nique *has* campaigned. Her non-campaign has been her campaign. Who is the only supporting actress contender anyone anywhere has been talking about? I see Vera Farmiga and Anna Kendrick showing up at parties and looking cute. But is anyone talking about them at all? Are they getting profiled in the NY Times by David Carr? No. They aren’t.
Big picture that no one seems to get: Mo’Nique is already established enough and “out there” enough – with her own fucking talk show for godssake. The only time heavy campaigning can help is if no one knows you (marion cotillard). You don’t need to campaign if you’re Katharine Hepburn who won FOUR LEADING ACTRESS Oscars and never showed up to accept a single one.
Sean Penn had to do an attitude adjustment in order to FINALLY win a Best Actor Oscar. He had to put on a tie and show and up and make nice. Mo’Nique has shown up when needed. She has accepted all of the big awards and given speeches each time that bring down the house.
She gets up there and she gives speech that touches on every button – it’s meaningful, it’s sincere, it’s touching, it’s profound and everyone goes, “wow, I like her.”
So then she keeps on winning. That, my friends, is how you keep winning awards.
Finally, I will also say that not showing up at the mewling New York Film Critics means nothing. Not a thing. It means even less now that Armond White has revealed his douchebag antics to the world. So no one is going to fault her there.
Mo’Nique would be winning this award without the NYFCC entirely because guess what, she deserves to win. This is an easy call.
Perceived “lack of competition” or not, the simple fact is: when you deliver a performance that generally knocks most people’s socks off, the performance is able to speak for itself.
When you deliver a performance that is merely good or competent, you NEED to campaign and gladhand and make everyone in Hollywood aware of how humble and friendly you are (see: Sandra Bullock, and more than half the Oscar winners in the last 10 years or so).
Sorry, I see Martin beat me to the non-campaign part.
“Who knew she was even an actress before Precious?”
I knew she was attempting to be, because I had to review every goddamn one of her previous movies.
If every awards voter had been through that, no way they’d have picked her.
I know this is bad to admit, but my Academy screener of PRECIOUS is still unopened on top of my coffee table. I hear nothing but how bleak it is. Guess, I’ll have to get to it soon.
how did Tom miss her star turn in Soul Plane?
Bizarro it is bleak, he mixes in some soft fantasy sequences to ease the pain but whew, i tell you i watched the last scene the scene i believe sealed it for monique, i watched that scene with my hand close to my face ready to cover it because i thought for sure monique would flip out violently and the fact that she DIDN’T only raised the intensity. this guy lee daniels is a disingenious sob because he’s pimped out the worse in black culture in all of his flicks but hey at least he’s hiring..
Well you certainly come across as much more sane and balanced in this article than you did in your multitude of posts on the subject here at HE, where you came across as…
…no need to go there again, as you say.
I think “campaigning ” is being confused with being polite and gracious. It was the perception that Monique had disdain for the award and her comments on her show about what the Oscar meant financially [as well as reports of demands for money for appearing] that triggered the controversy. No potential nominee has the obligation to shake every hand in Hollywood, but the appreciation for honors Monique has shown recently is only common decency. As for the idea that only actors with good not great performances campaign, remember that two living legends [Mirren and Day-Lewis] showed up everywhere in 2006 and 07and embodied the phrase “class acts.”
the campaign won’t start until the nominee are announced, Then there are 4 other women who will have a real shot at charming voters in a short time.
Monique might look like a lock pick, but remember when Lauren Bacall was supposed to win it? And what happened there?
Monique has three strikes against her:
1. She hosts a TV talkshow. Didn’t help Oprah
2. She made Soul Plane and other bad movies. Didn’t help Virginia Madsen
3. She showed off her hairy legs at the Golden Globes. Goes with Mickey Rourke’s doesn’t clean up nice.’
and Waltz might also have an issue at winning since I don’t know anyone who has won recently for playing a Jew Hunter has won. Although Kate Winslet might have turned the tide of “killing Jews is a bad way to impress Academy members.”
Oy, please. Lauren Bacall? Kate Hudson? They were in line to win an award that they did not deserve because they didn’t bring the goods. Ask yourself if Mo’Nique brings the goods. If the answer is yes then stop talking there.
Evelyn, Mo’Nique is not a trained seal the way most actors are. She isn’t someone who is going to go out wearing the right dress, saying the right things and walking the line like so many of them do. Most of the time they get nowhere doing this. The disdain you talk about was only generated by one or two websites and it did not make a real impact anywhere. If you notice, this story was mostly a cat chasing its own tail from the get go. Believe me, if there was any “there” there, it would be making a difference – it has made zero difference.
Mo’Nique hasn’t yet been trained to lie to the public and pretend like it isn’t the sleazy game it actually is – and she is faulted for not lying to the public? Please. We all play this game and pretend there is anything real about it. There is nothing real about it. Anyone who campaigns for an award is doing it for money, for ego, or for publicity for the film in general so that the film can be seen, make money, etc. God forbid anyone should ever tell the truth about what this ego orgy this really is.
I think the choice of words of “genuine primitive” says more about Wells than it does about Mo’Nique. Ban me if you’d like.
Also, I’d like to add that there is no “Mo’Nique problem.” It exists only on this site and occasionally on The Envelope.
Lauren Bacall didn’t win because the press always says the Oscars will choose the sentimental favorite when in fact they NEVER do. Really, go back and look and try to find somebody who won just for having been around forever. Richard Burton? Fred Astaire? Gloria Stuart? Old folks occasionally win because they gave a great performance (On Golden Pond isn’t my cup of tea, but everybody in it acted their asses off) but they DO NOT win just for being them.
I would call Morgan Freeman’s Oscar for MILLION DOLLAR BABY a sentimental win.
There’s a difference between a career achievement win (it’s finally Jeff Bridges’ time) and a part in a movie no one takes all that seriously (like The Mirror Has Two Faces, or The Towering Inferno for Fred Astaire, etc.) Admittedly, you could argue any set of particulars (Gloria Stuart was in a movie that people took seriously– but they didn’t go gaga for her) but the point is, if the press is telling you that some beloved oldster in some second-rank movie is a sure bet, bet the other way!
Lionsgate is campaigning its ass off on her behalf, on behalf of the film and doing a great job advocating for a really gritty movie with no perky/debonair movie stars, explosions or flying lizards. Frontal lobe space during awards season is in short supply and the best marketers know how to get their product on the shelf that the voters are walking past. (Sorry for the tortured metaphors.)
“Jeff, for once I agree with you completely. I really hope Kendrick wins.”
Sorry, but no. I don’t often comment here, but to claim that Anna Kendrick’s performance is on the same plane as that of Mo’Nique is simply disingenuous at best. No one could make such a claim and possibly pretend to be objectively evaluating the performance art of the two.
“I found her performance and personality genuinely unappealing. Which of course makes me a racist. Naturally. END.” –Jeffrey Wells, VF, 1/26/10
No, Jeff. Not liking the performance isn’t why people are calling you a racist. I think it probably has more to do with casually dropping phrases like “genuine primitive” to refer to black woman circa 2010. Keep on classing-up the level of general discourse around these parts, champ!
“Take up the White Man’s burden–/Send forth the best ye breed…”
these are the same people that gave an Oscar for Judi Dench’s cameo, Oscar voters think of this as joining their true family. they do get choosey,
I love the idea that Mo’Nique is Haing Ngor. This was something like her 20th film, and she headlined a sitcom for five or six years. Sure no one knew she had this much dramatic potential, but people certainly know her and know of her as an actress. O’Neill should really consider not speaking and analyzing every day because he comes across increasingly like an idiot when he has less and less to say.
I watched a screener of Precious last night and after about an hour, I wanted to take out the disc, smash it and then take a shower. What a piece of garbage this thing is. Mo is okay in it I guess if your idea of great is over the top historonics, but I thought she sucked. In fact, the whole thing just sucked the life right out of me and made me want to scrub my brain clean from ever having seen it. It might me the most over hyped hunk of shit since American Beauty. As far as i’m concerned, The Hurt Locker is the front runner for Best Pic and Bigalo is best Director. The less said about this waste of film the better. If this movie wins, it’s nothing but White Guilt run amok.
“If this movie wins, it’s nothing but White Guilt run amok.”
Apparently you are unaware of what “white guilt” actually means, because the term doesn’t apply when describing a work by flack filmmakers. Say what you will of the film’s assertions (and judging by your failure to make it through to the end, your own opinion is somewhat undercut), but the plight of a black teenager victimized by her black parents to achieve some modicum of self esteem and self reliance hasn’t a thing to do with “white guilt.”
*black filmmakers, obviously. Not “flack.”
I understand what you mean, ManhattanMadcap, and maybe White Guilt is the wrong term, but it just feels like if this film had been made by a white filmmaker about a white teenager who get’s beaten and victimized by her parents, no one would give it a second thought and there would be ZERO awards talk about it. And i said I felt like smashing the disc after an hour, not that I did. I actually made it all the way to the bloody end.
“To claim that Anna Kendrick’s performance is on the same plane as that of Mo’Nique is simply disingenuous at best.”
But, AK is as cute as a button and I’d really like to to do naughty things with her in unmentionable ways. Don’t you realize the Best Supporting Actress Oscar is reserved for the hottest girl in the room.
How is Monique going to look next to Penelope Cruz, Rachel Weisz, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Jennifer Connolly, Angelina Jolie, Kim Basinger, Juliette Binoche, Mira Sorvino, Anna Paquin, and Marisa Tomei, in the Oscar anniverary photo shoots. It’s just not right, black is OK (I’m looking at you Halle Berry), but fat is simply unacceptable.
As a black man, I find this blog posting title offensive. Shame on you, sir.
As a white man, I find that movie to be dull and full of shit. Shame on Saphire for writing the book on which the film is based.
I have to admit … I’ve just had a flash where I get what Wells is saying/has said. It really just hit me. It’s very hard to articulate, and he’s not particularly articulate….and that’s why he’s caught so much flack for it.
IF you take the oscars seriously, then awarding to someone who is indifferent to them is a waste. Why not give the award to someone who will appreciate it, who gave a worthy performance, who will benefit from it and in turn benefit the industry? It’s offensive to someone who cares deeply about the legacy of the awards and the IMPACT the awards are supposed to have to give it to someone who’s not an artist, who will not reciprocate the honor to either the art form or the industry in anyway.
Now, I don’t take the oscars seriously, so I don’t really give a shit. I love movies, but hate pageants. I actually enjoy someone like Monique making such a mockery of the whole spectacle.
While I can empathize with Wells on this point, this doesn’t excuse or pardon some of the ugly and thinly veiled border-line racist comments Jeff has made in trying to express this feeling. For those, he deserves all the flack he’s caught here and more.
“… is proof that you don’t have to campaign as much as most publicists think you have to…”
Isn’t this a good thing?
Lauren Bacall didn’t win because the press always says the Oscars will choose the sentimental favorite when in fact they NEVER do. Really, go back and look and try to find somebody who won just for having been around forever. Richard Burton? Fred Astaire? Gloria Stuart? Old folks occasionally win because they gave a great performance (On Golden Pond isn’t my cup of tea, but everybody in it acted their asses off) but they DO NOT win just for being them.
MICHAEL:
“I understand what you mean, ManhattanMadcap, and maybe White Guilt is the wrong term, but it just feels like if this film had been made by a white filmmaker about a white teenager who get’s beaten and victimized by her parents, no one would give it a second thought and there would be ZERO awards talk about it. And i said I felt like smashing the disc after an hour, not that I did. I actually made it all the way to the bloody end.”
“As a white man, I find that movie to be dull and full of shit. Shame on Saphire for writing the book on which the film is based.”
Now I am certain Jeff was refering to you when he used the term “genuine primitive.” Do you have anything of value to add to this conversation about the writing, the performances, the directing or…anything? Your discourse here is nothing short of embarassing.
“Smashing the disc” — what world do you live in?
There’s a difference between a career achievement win (it’s finally Jeff Bridges’ time) and a part in a movie no one takes all that seriously (like The Mirror Has Two Faces, or The Towering Inferno for Fred Astaire, etc.) Admittedly, you could argue any set of particulars (Gloria Stuart was in a movie that people took seriously– but they didn’t go gaga for her) but the point is, if the press is telling you that some beloved oldster in some second-rank movie is a sure bet, bet the other way!
“Really, go back and look and try to find somebody who won just for having been around forever”
Do you think John Wayne actually gave the best performance of the lot in “True Grit”?
McCool: “Why not give the award to someone who will appreciate it…?”
Why not just give it to the most deserving performance, which is what the award is supposed to be about. “If you take the Oscars seriously,” as you note, that should be the first and last concern.
casually dropping phrases like “genuine primitive” to refer to black woman circa 2010
You are being deliberately ignorant with this statement. Wells has called all manner of people (mostly on the right, mostly midwestern, mostly lower middle class, and mostly white) many variations of “genuine primitive”. If you’d like to call him racist, please find another line of evidence, ’cause this ain’t it. I’ve read Wells for over a decade, and if anything he’s a candidate for the ‘white guilt’ meme. He’s being even-handed by calling Mo’Nique this. She doesn’t want to be a dancing bear for the Oscar, whatever. Yes, that was deliberate.
I have no idea what PRECIOUS is based on.
Oh wait, yes I do. The novel PUSH by Sapphire.
“She hosts a TV talkshow. Didn’t help Oprah”
Yeah, they probably should’ve realized that a show which didn’t exist yet was going to be huge and given her the Oscar before the show had started…
“If you’d like to call him racist, please find another line of evidence, ’cause this ain’t it. ”
No, the best evidence there is that Jeff’s obsession with Monique is race-based is the dialect he adopts whenever he makes up a fake quote from her. (And then his defense of it, which he deleted, where he compared himself to Chris Rock.)
You might have trouble finding it, though, because he purged not only all the examples of it, but also the numerous people calling him out on how blatantly racist it was.
Could this help explain Jeff Wells’s endless obsessive vendetta against PRECIOUS and Mo’Nique?
In response to an article by Andrew Britton attacking Steven Spielberg in Movie magazine, Peter Benson wrote in 1989:
“Psychoanalysis is compelled to acknowledge that extreme revulsion is *always* the sign of an equal unconscious attraction. The energy needed to denigrate a film has to be expended in order to prevent oneself falling in love with it; or, rather, to deny that one has already fallen in love with it.”
Michael–
Believe me, I’m all for raging misanthropy but if you [and Jeff] are going to sit here and tell me that calling a black person a “primitive” carries no more racial charge than a perhaps more neutral invective (let’s try “ungrateful bitch” on for size), you seem to have missed out on some crucial moments in our proud collective history. Sure, there are far worse turns of phrase lurking out there, but that’s kind of the sick beauty of Wells, isn’t it?
He knows exactly what he’s doing, time and again gleefully walking up to some forbidden line, toeing the waters and then responding with righteous indignation whenever he’s called out on it. I don’t know which is worse: Wells’ “Who me?” routine or the suckers who buy it with a grin.
The best part of that article:
“In a seemingly endless series of posts, he has railed against her unstoppable stream of wins”
As I’ve mentioned before, if Marion Cotillard was run as a supporting, she would be Monique’s competition. Other than Monique, this year’s supporting actresses didn’t offer a lot of range and personality that you cared about or were frightened about (Monique)
This is the hardest category to predict nominations for this year, because I can’t figure out who the fifth person will even be. I’m assuming both of ‘em from ‘Up in the Air’ (spliting the vote, making sure neither wins), and somebody from ‘Nine’ [Cruz, I guess? Even though Cotillard was much much much better in 'Nine']. Who’s the fifth? If it’s Julianne Moore, I might bet on her just to have a surprise to root for.
As long as she beats Kendrick, I’ll be cool with her.
But can we comment on the heading of “Genuine Primitive” without fear of banning? Because if that particular pejorative was not intended to rankle readers, I don’t know what is. I don’t think Jeff is racist because of his attitude towards Mo’Nique.
What interests me is that use of this title is in the spirit of a deliberate kind of “News of the World” nastiness – and all the more unsavoury because I think he evokes this imagery as a shock tactic – and revealed a rather middle-class outlook to boot.
It is those in the middle who care most about the superficial – primped, aestheticised bodies, toeing the PR party line, canceling family vacations and putting her talk show on hold to better shuck and jive for regional critics groups. Those at the top (George C. Scott) and those down low (the lady in question) don’t give a fig – nor do they need to. Mo’Nique is more subversive, more “Chris Rock”, hell, more French in her actions than those who consider her unladylike for not shaving her legs – and grinning all the while at her detractors.
“As a white man, I find that movie to be dull and full of shit. Shame on Saphire for writing the book on which the film is based.”
Right, because GOD FORBID anyone should write anything that you, as a white man, wouldn’t like.
Many people have been moved by this story, with these actors and this director. Deal with it, people.
“Psychoanalysis is compelled to acknowledge that extreme revulsion is *always* the sign of an equal unconscious attraction.”
Well, yeah, I think most of us suspect that about Wells’ constant rantings about fatties.
“Psychoanalysis is compelled to acknowledge that extreme revulsion is *always* the sign of an equal unconscious attraction.”
Well, yeah, I think most of us suspect that about Wells’ constant rantings about fatties.
No, Jeff. Not liking the performance isn’t why people are calling you a racist. I think it probably has more to do with casually dropping phrases like “genuine primitive” to refer to black woman circa 2010. Keep on classing-up the level of general discourse around these parts, champ. online certificate programs
Sorry, I see Martin beat me to the non-campaign part.I don’t understand
She was the best and she deserved the award that she was given.
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but she’s benefitting this year from a lack of competition and, as she continues to win award after award this derby season, her winning streak suggests a shocking thought: Hey, maybe you can really refuse to campaign and still win!”
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