'Precious': A New Kind of Blaxploitation

"This black poverty porn is designed to titillate. It’s a freakshow in which Sapphire, Daniels, Oprah and the rest pull back the curtain on what they imagine that poor, welfare-dependent black communities get up to in private. The focus on the characters’ flab, their foul language, their ignorance, their bad parenting skills. . .  paints a picture of a community that is utterly incapable of looking after itself and which clearly needs the caring agents of the state (Carey’s social worker, Kravitz’s listening nurse, Patton’s understanding teacher) to raise them up from their mental and emotional squalor." Movie review by Brendan O'Neill.