Of the dozens of stars who have passed through the EW Photo Studio at Sundance this week, none left us quite so dumbstruck as the powerful, passionate women of Push, director Lee Daniels' take on the Sapphire novel of the same title. Piled together on a couch, clutching each others' hands, grabbing the tape recorder to send a special request to Kleenex for some extra boxes, Mo'Nique, Paula Patton, and newcomer Gabourey Sidibe -- who plays Precious, an obese, illiterate, sexually abused teen -- were the perfect antidote to the promotional gloss of the celebrity conveyor belt. It's no doubt due in large part to the group's impressive emotional availability that their movie has been the surprise breakout of the fest, with the first question from the audience after its premiere reportedly being, "Mo'Nique, what are you going to wear to the Oscars?"

Mute and mountainous, a stolid outsider who can barely read, Claireece is pregnant -- again -- by her father and on the verge of being kicked out of school. She’s also cruelly oppressed by her mother, Mary (Mo’Nique), whose daily routine consists of watching daytime TV, smoking cigarettes and treating her daughter like a slave (any historical parallels are not an accident). The situation is so dire that you almost have to laugh -- the way you might laugh, nervously, during the darkest moments of a horror movie.

“Push” is a horror movie, of course, and Mary is a monster, whose one glimmer of humanity -- which Mo’Nique, who is utterly brilliant, reveals in a tour de force soliloquy at the finale -- only makes her more horrible.

The story of a troubled Harlem teen named Precious (Gabourey Sidibe) impregnated by her absent father, “Push” progresses with a steadily engaging series of starts and stops in the frayed world of its talented star. While fending off her dysfunctional mother (Monique, in a stunningly psychotic turn), Precious gradually learns to surpass her aimless fantasies and come to grips with the troubles at hand.

Also stunning: Mo'Nique. I shit you not. As Precious' welfare cheating mother Mo'Nique essays one of the greatest bad moms in cinema history. She makes Joan Crawford look like Ma from Little House. The character is mean, nasty, violent, lazy and ugly - physically ugly in a way that must have taken a lot of courage on the part of Mo'nique. What I really appreciated about Mo'Nique's performance was not only how rotten she was willing to go but how she maintained that even during a big emotional scene where we get to understand why she is the way she is. Mo'Nique lays the character bare for us but never begs for us to feel bad for her or to change our opinion of her. The actress - and the film - knows that understanding isn't the same as accepting. Were Mo'Nique (and Sidibe) to be nominated for Oscars in 2010 I wouldn't imagine raising a stink. I wouldn't imagine raising anything but a glass in their direction for two performances that shatter with their honesty.

If anything, she'll just be another Sundance fave that flames out by awards season.

Plus, the film shares a title with a Dakota Fanning action movie. Not exactly a good sign.

By the way, y'all neglected to mention that Mariah Carey is in this movie. Playing a social worker, wearing prosthetics, apparently unrecognizable and ACTUALLY GOOD. I must see this movie.

Oh, and Paula Patton is supposed to be excellent in it as well. I thought she was very talented in movies like Idlewild and Deja Vu before she appeared in apparent dreck like Swing Vote and Mirrors.

ya'll? Look at Libs, talking all ghetto.

Can you imagine what a Mariah Carey Oscar winning speech would sound like?

Can you imagine what a Mariah Carey Oscar winning speech would sound like?

Mariah does NOT sound like a bag of drowning cats, I will have you know!