In the ham-fisted and formulaic movieВ The Blind Side, Bullock performs with thoughtfulness and depth last evident when she played a racist housewife inВ CrashВ (2005).Д«ullock plays Leigh Anne Tuohy, the wealthy Memphis woman who adopts a homeless African American teenager and encourages him to become a football star. BullockвЂ™s achievement comes from the understatement she pulls off in a film whose moral is writ so large she practically bumps her head on it in every scene. Sidibe captures the spark of fortitude and life that fuels a physically and emotionally abused teenager to make her own way, to strive to be more than her circumstances dictate.ДЄs my partner in movie-going and in life Stacy Wolf pointed out, how ironic that Sandra Bullock won Best Actress for a role in an idealized story about white people вЂњsavingвЂќ an African American teenager, instead of Sidibe, who plays an African American teenager who manages to save herself.ДЄlthough Sidibe deserved the award, IвЂ™m glad that Sandra Bullock won instead of, say, Meryl Streep, whose vivacious turn as Julia Childs inВ Julie and JuliaВ was great fun but not as impressive in this competition. SidibeвЂ™s performance, directed by Lee Daniels-the openly gay, African American who was only the second man of color ever to be nominated in the OscarsвЂ™ Best Director category-is powerful and impressive, as she modulates PreciousвЂ™s tentative but dogged growth from a girl cocooned in layers of self-protective mistrust to a young woman open to learning, to love, and to survival. Her transformative performance in a role that showed both toughness and tenderness, that took her character on a journey from abjection to determination, required the young actor to plumb the depths of an experience far from her own. For Your Viewing Pleasure: Gender, Sexuality, and Popular CultureДЇirst to state the obvious: Gabourey Sidibe, the young actor fromВ Precious: Based on the NovelВ Pushby Sapphire, would have been a better choice for Best Actress at the 2010 Academy Awards.Feminist Performance Festival Roundtable (2011).вЂњFeminism, Utopia, and PerformanceвЂќ: The Progressives Corner (2012).Performing Que(e)ries Part IV: Holly Hughes in conversation with Jill Dolan (2013).вЂњWhat Makes a Jewish Theatre ArtistвЂќ (2013).Teaching and Mentoring, for Grad Students and New Faculty.вЂњFeminist Performance Criticism and the Popular: Reviewing Wendy WassersteinвЂќ (2008).вЂњColleague-Criticism: Performance, Writing, and Queer CollegialityвЂќ (2009).

вЂњOn вЂPublicsвЂ™: A Feminist Constellation of KeywordsвЂќ (2011).вЂњCasual Racism and Stuttering Failures: An Ethics for Classroom EngagementвЂќ (2012).вЂњPerforming Jewishness In and Out of the ClassroomвЂќ (2012).вЂњFeeling WomenвЂ™s Culture: WomenвЂ™s Music, Lesbian Feminism, and the Impact of Emotional MemoryвЂќ (2012).вЂњTo Teach and to Mentor: Toward Our Collective FutureвЂќ (2013).

Blind side