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Take a look: "The Help"
Published: 8/11/2011 5:22 PM
Last Modified: 8/11/2011 5:22 PM

Look for my 3-star review of "The Help" in Friday's Scene, and watch the movie for some performances that are generating Academy Award buzz for Viola Davis and Octavia Spencer as the maids on which the story is focused.

There could be other nominations as well for acting -- Jessica Chastain as Celia Foote, the beautiful outcast in this racist Mississippi community, and Bryce Dallas Howard as Hilly, the garden-club dragon lady who controls Jackson's social elite.

While there's also some buzz about this being a player in the best picture category, I'd say that's a long shot for this film about black people that's been made for white audiences.

Not that the movie isn't both moving and very funny; it is. But I don't think it's best-picture material.

Check out the trailer for "The Help" here.

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My wife wife and I found "The Help" to be a deeply moving and funny human story and would recommend it to adult viewing audiences. We are not movie critics and lack the patrician views of entertainment that most critics use to anoint films with more art, twisted plots, or cinematic quality. I suppose best picture material has nothing to do with how entertaining or thought provoking a movie may be. The remark about this being a film about black people made for white audiences is as relevantas that this is a review about a black film made by a white critic.

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I See Movies for Free

“I was born a poor, black child” … not me, actually, but Steve Martin’s character in the “The Jerk.” That absurd opening line is just one of the absurd number of film facts, quotes and minutiae contained in movie critic Michael Smith’s brain, at his disposal to toss out on a moment’s notice. It’s a key requirement as Tulsa World film critic to know these things. Michael learned a few other life facts along the way (seven years as a Crystal’s Pizza & Spaghetti manager) before attempting journalism and joining the Tulsa World in 1996, where he’s covered everything from a school shooting in Fort Gibson to a tornado in Stroud to witnessing an execution. A little community theater coverage was sprinkled in there, too. Movies engender many of his happiest memories, from standing in line for “Star Wars” and “Grease” at the Southroads Cinema to the James Bond and Pink Panther movies that always premiered at the enormous Continental Theater.

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Past Articles By Michael Smith

2/16/2013		Broken Arrow movie theater moves to discount showings
2/15/2013		Review: 'Amour'
2/15/2013		Review: 'A Good Day to Die Hard'
2/15/2013		Review: 'Beautiful Creatures'
2/14/2013		Review: 'Quartet'
2/14/2013		Shirley MacLaine to speak at Osage Casino
2/14/2013		Weekly rewind: February 14
2/14/2013		REVIEW: 'Beautiful Creatures'
2/12/2013		Belgian best picture hopeful 'Amour' opens in Tulsa on Friday
2/10/2013		'Die Hard' marathon at AMC Southroads on Wednesday ends with new film
2/9/2013		Review: 'Identity Thief' a stupid movie from stupid idea
2/8/2013		Oscar audit: Critics choices for best picture hold up over time

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