OH MAN.

This HAS to be the best movie of the year if Shack hated it. Honestly.

Jarring and emotionally draining. It's not only propelled by the subject matter but its effective direction and acting. 12 Years a Slave is entirely deserving of its praise, and there are too many standout scenes to single out without just recounting the entire movie.

Impressive supporting roles from Fassbender and Nyong'o, but the standout, for me, is Chiwetel Ejiofor, a reliable actor with a great filmography who's finally getting the recognition he deserves.

I think it's easy to label this as another "white guilt" movie, playing on emotions, but some of the best movies hit you on an emotional level, and 12 Years a Slave accomplishes that in numerous ways.

****

It was a good movie, and I would be satisfied with it winning best picture, as a film on this topic deserves to, I just don't think this was all that great of a film. Slavery was bad, bad shit like this happen, look now HE has to whip HER...a slave whipping a slave... I know this is horrible of me to say, but that scene just felt cliche', but I agree with Magnus that it was very well directed. Maybe because I am a history major and have seen plenty of docu-dramas on this topic, but this movie just felt like a seen that, been there kinda movie. Hell, it even has the typical conflicted white guy who's just not quite too sure if he is making the right decision or not. The film relies far to heavy on its subject manner and the falsehood that we aren't aware of its existence.

Criticism aside, time for the positives, and this film easily has more positives than negatives. First, fantastic performances all-around, especially from its lead Ejiofor. He plays it very similarly to his character from Dirty Pretty Things, so I can't say I was blown away, but this is an improvement over that previous social commentary. He effectively brings you into his character and his story, and keeps your attention keen throughout. And yes, as Dr. Lecter mentioned before, if you don't feel anything in that last scene, you must be made of stone.

However, for me, it was Michael Fassbender who gave the best performance. Not once did he feel like the generic devil white man archeotype. His character truly felt organic, and original. Truly he lost himself into the role, from his stumbling, to his silent demeanor in the wake of his wife's emasculation of his ego. I could buy him becoming trailer trash after the Civil War.

Ironically, this film worked far better when it wasn't about exposing the horrors of slavery, but rather on the internal frustration of Solomon. To me the most powerful and moving scene was not the whipping scene, but the scene in which Solomon burns the letter. That got to me, not the cliche' torture scenes. But as far as exposing slavery goes, one scene did work with the help of Zimmerman's incredible supporting score, and that was the hanging scene. As Magnus pointed out, what was powerful was not the hanging itself, but rather how other were impartial to its occurrence.

That being said, it was good, but not one to enter my personal viewing library. Glad I saw it, and hope it does well during the award season.

B+

Heh - - love the subtext! This review's practically written in code. Have you considered a career as a contortionist?

Yeah, I kinda go back and forth. It is a well made movie, from a technical point of view, and it handles its important subject matter with gravitas. However, I think it is more appropriate for the class room than the library of the cinemaphile.

The problem is that slavery is the plot as well as the subject of this film. It feels strangely empty. I very muched enjoyed the scenery, though.

Sicko.

It took me two tries, but I made it through 12 Years A Slave. The first time I made it four minutes in, and was horrified by the movies theme music. I still am. The score isn't terrible entirely, Zimmer knows how to set a mood with intense drumming, but the main theme song is terrible. And it's played a lot. I had also misinterpreted the beginning, not realizing that they were unable to have sex due to him no longer feeling like a man. That, to me, is more powerful than any of the whippings. If a movie is not entertaining, then it should be educational or at least philosophical. 12 Years A Slave achieves all of these, but only in short doses. My favorite scene comes early on, shortly after he is captured. He and two other well-spoken slaves debate whether to try and escape. Solomon says the corny but awesome line "I don't want to survive, I want to live" . I was hooked, I swear. Then the one guy gets stabbed and the other runs back to his master in tears of gratitude. This is not Django Unchained, which understood how to entertain with a difficult subject. The bad guys don't get shot in Steve McQueen's movie, they all get away with all the awful things they've done . That's far more realistic, but I already knew all that. It's why we have college history courses, to tell us how awful white people are. Except for the good white people who save the day from the bad white people.

Is it racist to say the Sarah Paulson is the best here? With Lupita coming in second and Michael in third? I like Chiwitel, and he is good here, but is a mostly laid back performance considering all that is going on around him. He does what he needs to survive though, and because of that it's a simpler task to take this ride along with him. An outsider coming in, who just wants to survive. So his survival is dependent upon being shown up by those around him, hiding in plain sight just as his character would. Good method acting, Chiwitel, but it's not going to win you an oscar. His big scene might have been enough to earn it in a weaker year, where he joins in the singing at the funeral, finally accepting his fate. Brad Pitt is the worst and is clearly stoned. That's really funny, and it took me out of the movie. He really should have stayed behind the camera.

So there is a lot to like here, but it can never keep its momentum long enough. I love Django partly because it had a new take on this terrible time in history that in no way justifIed it, similar to what Inglorious Basterds did for WW2. Yeah Hitler didn't really get killed in a movie theater and yeah Django was probably about 1% historically accurate. 12 Years seems more like a fuck you to Django than a real movie sometimes, and that is unfortunate because it rises very high at others.

Great review Flava!

I had a similar experience when I saw this yesterday as Flava. Two people walked out of the film after the first 5 minutes.

Other than that, our experiences differ. I was engulfed by this story. I was not overly involved with the characters from the beginning, but by the end, I couldn't control my emotions. Heartbreaking.

Chiwitel was wonderful, I didn't really think Nyong'o was as fantastic as some, but she was good enough. Fassbender, though, was the best performance of the bunch. An absolute terror. The scene where he confronts Chiwitel about sending a letter was chilling. As was the whipping scene.

A

I agree with you Chip, I think Fassbender gives the best performance of the movie.

I feel the only reason why this might win Best Picture is cuz of White Guilt.

Otherwise yes, this was a great film but not even top 5 of the year.

I felt that way too until I saw it.

Though I agree that it's not the best of the nine pics nominated.

Idk if it was my expectations or what but really this gets a B from me.

thank god.

It's a good movie but far from a masterpiece.

My biggest complaint is that this just didn't feel like 12 years, more like 3 months. I don't care if his daughter is all grown-up and his hair got white in parts. There's one bad (seen before) situation after another and then he got freed. Those people may have all existed and are accurately portrayed in the movie but none of the characters felt like anything more than a stereotype to me. Fassbender for example, someone like him is in about every movie that deals with slavery, it doesn't make him more three-dimensional if he looks tormented by himself every other scene.

I agree with everything in your post except for the line about Fassbender. I found Cumberbatch's character to be more one-dimensional and cliche. Yes all of these movies have the generic evil white man, but here I actually felt like Fassbender was rounded and real.

But yes, my biggest gripe is how little time it felt like passed. The film would have acheived far greater appreciation from me if they gave me that sense of length. Perhaps even making the film drag a little bit for effect.

I find the Cumberbatch character very interesting in the sense he invites our admiration--he is capable of common sense, he "helps" Solomon in the moment--but he is ultimately a coward and just as much a fixture and proponent of the slave trade as the more outwardly evil man played by Michael Fassbender. His exquisite magnolia charm and devout Christian faith is deeply compromised.

I would have loved to learn more about Cumberbatch's character. Would have been by far the most interesting one.

But not as well acted.

FASSBENDER FOR THE WIN BITCHES

Oh, Fassbender was absolutely fantastic, no doubt about that. Doesn't make his character any more interesting, though.

And I would argue that Cumberbatch & Fassbender are not too far away from eachother in the acting department (overall, Fassbender owns Slave).

Oh my. Just came home from the cinema. And this is such a terribly overrated movie. I think it's a C at best from me.

Oh, my. Do you have the vapors?