For some reason, Daniels decided to set the movie in 1987, even though nothing about the movie seems like 1987 save some wardrobe choices here and there. In a moment that is supposed to symbolize Precious’s budding awareness as she becomes more literate, we see a montage of important people and events about which she wants to expose her child, including Tianenmen Square, which wouldn’t happen for another two years. In another of those aforementioned fantasy montage things, the background music is Queen Latifah’s “Come Into My House,” which, again, wouldn’t come out until 1989. Then there’s the modern NYC subway car we see Precious on. Nitpicky, perhaps, but then there’s nothing about the story that required Daniels to set the movie in 1987, either. Maybe that chronological conceit was a way to explain all the crackheads in her neighborhood, or Precious’s affinity for light-skin brothers, who haven’t really been in since the days of DeBarge and Al B. Sure.Stuff like this is deeply frustrating to me, as a former fact-checker, and as a moviegoer. Some of it may be simply the function of budget: if you're working on an indie, you may not be able to snag an old-school subway car. But much more importantly, the movies are about the creation of a coherent alternate universe. Some of that comes out of great acting. But a fair amount of it comes from detail and nuance. Lynn Hirschberg makes this point about the entirely different universes Wes Anderson's been able to create. Getting the suit right may be a matter of dandyfication for Anderson. But in a work like Precious that asks for sympathy and empathy, getting details like the music and historical dates wrong will jar and detatch close viewers who are trying to immerse themselves in this really difficult world. It's not just a flaw in the details of the filmmaking. It does harm to the power of the story.
*Sorry for the in-joke. G.D. has dubbed the family of his fantastic group blog, PostBourgie, the Grape Drink Mafia. Being an adopted member of that clan, and having G.D. as one of my blog big brothers is so awesome that it makes me want to make reference to it all the time.