Nov. 5 (Bloomberg) -- Claireece “Precious” Jones is an obese, illiterate, pregnant 16-year-old from Harlem who’s been raped by her father, beaten by her mother, ridiculed by her schoolmates and ignored by everyone else.

She’s also the protagonist in the best American movie I’ve seen this year. “Precious: Based on the Novel ‘Push’ by Sapphire” is a searing, unsparing, depressing and ultimately uplifting story about a teenager desperate to escape from the living hell she calls home.

With Oprah Winfrey and Tyler Perry providing clout as executive producers, “Precious” may find the broad audience it deserves. Even if it doesn’t, it should be a major contender at Oscar time, particularly for Mo’Nique’s unforgettable portrayal of Precious’s angry, abusive mom.

Lee Daniels’s film, set in 1987 and based on a 1996 book, is a combustible mix of personal and social drama. Ostensibly a tale of individual willpower overcoming seemingly impossible odds, it’s also a reminder of all the other kids like Precious trapped in a cycle of poverty and violence.

Daniels, who produced the Oscar-winning “Monster’s Ball,” directs with dazzling imagination in just his second feature film.

Whenever Precious is faced with a horrible situation, she escapes by imagining herself in happier roles -- as a glamorous model, famous actress, joyous choir singer or the suburban wife of her handsome math teacher. These abrupt switches could easily have been awkward, but Daniels makes the fantasies a seamless part of Precious’s personality.

Miserable Mom

It’s no wonder she must dream to survive. Her harsh reality includes an absent father whose incestuous rapes have produced a Down syndrome child and made her pregnant again, and a mother who sits around all day watching TV, calling her stupid and ordering her to cook and buy lottery tickets.

Mo’Nique, the actress, comedian, TV host and best-selling author, portrays a self-pitying bully determined to make her own daughter as miserable as she is. It’s not until a remarkable scene near the end, when she tells a social worker played by Mariah Carey about her own pain, that she seems more human than monster.

Newcomer Gabourey Sidibe plays Precious as a raw but gentle teenager who, with the help of a caring teacher (Paula Patton), learns to read and write in an alternative school. Musician Lenny Kravitz has an affecting cameo as a nurse who treats Precious after she delivers her second child.

The only quibble I have with the movie is the overlong title. It’s a tad precious, if you ask me.

“Precious: Based on the Novel ‘Push’ by Sapphire,” from Lions Gate, opens tomorrow in New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Atlanta and Alexandria, Virginia. Rating: ****

‘Stare at Goats’

“More of this is true than you would believe” claims the epigraph for “The Men Who Stare at Goats.” True or not, this movie about a secret unit of “psychic warriors” is an uproarious satire on the sometimes bizarre excesses of the U.S. military.

Based on a nonfiction book by Jon Ronson, “Goats” stars George Clooney as a mysterious soldier who tells a small-town reporter (Ewan McGregor) about his experience in the New Earth Army, an experimental program that trained members to read the enemy’s mind, run through walls, break up clouds and kill goats by staring at them.

These “warrior monks” are part hippie, part mentalist and part Superman. They’re led by a ponytailed New Age guru named Bill Django (Jeff Bridges) until he’s undermined and overthrown by a spoon-bending sci-fi writer (Kevin Spacey) who transforms the idea into a private company specializing in Abu Ghraib-style torture techniques.

Blindfold Driving

Grant Heslov’s film doesn’t have much of a plot and it drags toward the end, but most of the time it’s hilarious. Absurd situations are handled in a deadpan manner, a la “Dr. Strangelove,” and most of the characters are intriguing, if strictly one-dimensional.

Clooney shows off his considerable comic gifts as Lyn Cassady, who meets the reporter while searching for Django in Iraq. Whether he’s crashing his car in the middle of a desert, demonstrating his karate moves or practicing “cloud-bursting” by staring at the sky, Cassady has a wild gleam in his eyes that could be interpreted as genius or insanity.

Bridges also shines as the wacky shaman of the New Earth Army who trains his troops to walk on hot coals, drive blindfolded and dance instead of march. Heslov, an actor, screenwriter and producer who co-wrote the script for Clooney’s “Good Night, and Good Luck,” does solid if unspectacular work in his debut as a feature director.

As for the veracity of the story, Ronson’s book really does trace the history of a psychic military unit trained to employ such unusual techniques as stink bombs, attack bees and subliminal sounds. Yes, they even tried to kill goats by staring at them.

“The Men Who Stare at Goats,” from Overture Films, opens tomorrow across the U.S. Rating: ***

What the Stars Mean:

****          Excellent
***           Good
**            Average
*             Poor
(No stars)    Worthless

(Rick Warner is the movie critic for Bloomberg News. The opinions expressed are his own.)

To contact the writer on the story: Rick Warner in New York at rwarner1@bloomberg.net.

Last Updated: November 5, 2009 00:01 EST