Gabourey Sidibe's debut and Mo'Nique's outstanding performance (which won her a gold naked guy) are easily the highlights of the character study that is the subject of the Next 170 Project. Neither of those actresses has been cast much since (we discuss some of the reasons why), but they'll be hard-pressed to ever surpass what they did here anyway. Lee Daniels' 2nd film is certainly his best work behind the bullhorn and Geoffrey Fletcher took home an Oscar for his rock-solid script. They can all thank thenovelPushbySapphire, although neither of the 2 Oscar-winners actually mentioned Sapphire during their speeches. Huh. Anyway, this movie isn't easy to watch, but there's some really meaningful stuff going on as we get a rare glimpse into the rough lives of poor, black women.

Sparkplug Coffee is a fine answer to the question of what goes well with pigs feet 'n' fried chicken. The Sparkers continue to offer a 20% discount if you are willing to type in "top100project" as your promo code at check-out.

For The Record: Oprah's 4 impediments to making it in show biz are that she was black, overweight, poor and a woman. Also, there were 10 Best Picture nominees in 2009 (the 1st year they expanded it from the previously standard 5). We mentioned 5 of the noms, but also there was Up, The Blind Side, District 9, A Serious Man and An Education.

Twitter monkeys, you can monkey us: @moviefiend51 and @bevellisellis

Our website: www.top100project.com

Next week, we'll review Three Kings