12 Years a Slave (2013)

[baumer]

Discuss

[lilmac]

Nominee Locks

 

Best Picture

Best Actor

Best Director

 

 

 

Pros:

 

Excellent directing by McQueen.  The very beginning we see a flashforward, then a seemingly random shot (akin to Django Unchained "They call me Hildy" scene) then a cold cut to the title of the movie.  It was a sequence you don't see anywhere else.  Little things like that I liked.  I look forward to future McQueen movies.  Fassbender is a very believable slave driver.  His manic and unpredictable manner makes him one of the most feared slave driver characters in film history.  Quasi-Supporting Actor lock.  Chiwetal WILL be nominated.  Guaranteed.  How could you not?  He carries this film and the story of Solomon Northrop ably on his shoulders.  Masterful performance.  I gave the film an A primarily because it just screams Best Picture.  The look and feel of this film is top notch.  Many of the scenes were hard to look at but that's what you expect.  Overall, it was money well spent.  12AS is worth the hype.

 

 

 

Cons:  

 

Everybody talks as if it's a Shakespeare film.  I wandered aloud (hope nobody heard me) who wrote the script.  Even the most educated people didn't talk like that.  It was a bit too theatrical.

[RobinHood26]

12 Years a slave is in a Master Class, truley beyond words. One of the most beautiful and powerful films Ive ever seen.

Best Picture of the year

 

Chiwetel Ejiofor deseves to win best actor, he fucking kills it. the acting all around is top notch everyone is on there A game. The cinematography was pitch perfect, the filmmaking all around was damn near perfect. My whole theater including myself were left weeping. I sat through the whole credits.

 

A (96.5)

[Cmasterclay]

This movie was fucking visceral and incredible. Brilliant on every level, and heart wrenching. Audience loved it. It could have been one of the best dramas of all time, but it was held back by one semi glaring flaw that lilmac touched on- the dialogue. Didn't make sense for anyone beside Northrup and Cumberbatch to talk like that. Way too elegant for stupid southerners and life long slaves.  Took me out of the movie a couple of times. But otherwise, perfect

 

A

[Gopher]

A masterpiece. I had high expectations going in but pretty much every shot left me emotionally drained. IMO this deserves to rank with Schinder's List and Requiem for a Dream as one of the most effectively devastating films ever made. 

 

Go ahead and hand Ejiofor and Fassbender their Oscars. The former's performance is based mostly in body language and he conveys an incredible amount just by looking up from his work or thinking about his family. The latter is as impressive here as he was in Shame or Hunger, throwing himself into one of the most despicable characters I've ever seen on film. 

 

If there's anything wrong with the movie it's that Brad Pitt takes you out of the story McQueen has created (it's hard not to notice the producer of the film cast as the only good white guy), but he has a great scene with Fassbender that almost makes it worth the trouble. But everything else is raw and brutal and packed with feeling.

 

Possibly 2013's best. We'll see. 

[Ezen Baklattan]

How's Cumberbatch? I want him to have one good movie this year.

[Gopher]

He's very good in a small role. So are Giamatti and Dano. Everyone in the film feels small next to Ejiofor, but they're still offering so much as their characters. 

Edited October 21, 2013 by Gopher

[Ezen Baklattan]

I'm certainly excited. The best film in a year with Before Midnight, Gravity, and Upstream Color? Damn, this might be the strongest year for film since 2007.

[Halba]

this is so winning best picture. monstrous reviews so far.

[riczhang]

I'm certainly excited. The best film in a year with Before Midnight, Gravity, and Upstream Color? Damn, this might be the strongest year for film since 2007.

 

Honestly, I still think 2012 was a much stronger year. 

[MrPink]

A great film, probably not my favorite of the year, but absolutely essential viewing.

 

The word to describe this film is raw. This never really approaches the point of saccharine that many films typically would go, and it is more powerful because of it. The cast across the board is excellent, with the exception of Brad Pitt, as Gopher mentioned. Not that Pitt is a bad actor, but he is distracting. Once he appears, sporting a toned down Aldo Raines accent, it sticks out compared to the rest of the cast. I thought the best performance of the film was Michael Fassbender, and I hope to see him win a Supporting Actor award come February/March. Ejiofor certainly deserves a nod and maybe the win, but I could go either way with Tom Hanks or him right now. Of course, the fact that Hanks has already won twice means the edge goes to Ejiofor, who also had the more difficult role to portray. It's not really about showy scenes, but more about agonizing looks of despair and conveying that feeling to the audience that impresses the most.

 

A-

[Ezen Baklattan]

Devastatingly effective, with every element, every performance, and every line of dialogue prepared to near perfection. I left the theater feeling completely shaken.

[Jack Nevada]

God, I want to see this thing so bad.

[The Panda]

"The tale, based off the autobiography written by Solomon Northup, of this film rings utterly powerful and captures the heart and soul of the viewers through this Shakespearian-esque tragedy." 

http://thepandaflicksreviews.blogspot.com/2013/11/12-years-slave-review.html

[baumer]

The film is very good and the acting is fantastic as well.  The problem I have with crowning this as the best film of the year and saying it's one of the most emotional films of all time and so on is that it's easy to make a film about slavery a raw and gut wrenching thing to sit through.  It's about slavery and it's about terrible things that were done to people.  How can it not be emotional and raw and powerful and so on?  All you have to do is show people being lashed and then the aftermath of their scars.  Show a mother being torn apart from her kids and show men being hung.  It's a great film but it's not the best film of the year.  For this film to be anything but powerful would be a shock.  It's got a great cast and there are images in here that make you sick.  White people enslaving black people is disgusting and if it doesn't make you mad or uneasy watching this film then you are not human or you are stuck in the 1840's.  

 

I give the film very high marks because it is well made and I thought everyone was great in it, including Pitt.  Not sure why he is being centered out here as he has a pivotal role that perpetuates his essential freedom.  I liked it very much when he was on screen and there is a scene he has with Fassbender that is really well done.  As for the others Ejiofor is outstanding and he is obviously a shoe in for a nom, but imho, Hanks should win just based on pure greatness.  I'd have no issue however if Ejiofor did as well.  Fassbender is outstanding also, as is Cumberbatch, Dano, Giamatti and Sarah Paulson is deliciously evil as Fassbender's jealous and raging wife.  Nicole Collins plays Rachel and she is really good as well.

 

The film is really well done I just don;t think it should be called the best of the year.

 

9/10

[Jack Nevada]

The film is very good and the acting is fantastic as well. The problem I have with crowning this as the best film of the year and saying it's one of the most emotional films of all time and so on is that it's easy to make a film about slavery a raw and gut wrenching thing to sit through. It's about slavery and it's about terrible things that were done to people. How can it not be emotional and raw and powerful and so on? All you have to do is show people being lashed and then the aftermath of their scars. Show a mother being torn apart from her kids and show men being hung. It's a great film but it's not the best film of the year. For this film to be anything but powerful would be a shock. It's got a great cast and there are images in here that make you sick. White people enslaving black people is disgusting and if it doesn't make you mad or uneasy watching this film then you are not human or you are stuck in the 1840's. I give the film very high marks because it is well made and I thought everyone was great in it, including Pitt. Not sure why he is being centered out here as he has a pivotal role that perpetuates his essential freedom. I liked it very much when he was on screen and there is a scene he has with Fassbender that is really well done. As for the others Ejiofor is outstanding and he is obviously a shoe in for a nom, but imho, Hanks should win just based on pure greatness. I'd have no issue however if Ejiofor did as well. Fassbender is outstanding also, as is Cumberbatch, Dano, Giamatti and Sarah Paulson is deliciously evil as Fassbender's jealous and raging wife. Nicole Collins plays Rachel and she is really good as well.The film is really well done I just don;t think it should be called the best of the year.9/10

Wow, 9/10 is still really fucking good!

[baumer]

I didn't say it's not good, I just said that to say it is one of the best of all time or that it is one of the most raw, primal, emotional, powerful films and blah blah blah is a little much.  I don't think it's possible to make a film about slavery and have it not be powerful.

[Jake Gittes]

Granted I have yet to see the film, but I think it's still extremely important to strike the perfect balance when dealing with a subject like this. You can't just throw two hours of people suffering on screen and expect everyone to be at your feet, otherwise McQueen would never have been the first filmmaker to attempt to make such a serious, confronting film about the subject. People suffering is inherently powerful, yet there can always be either too much or not enough of it, it can always be sugarcoated to some extent or made so relentless and brutal for its own sake that at some point it's not effective anymore and the audience just becomes numb. If McQueen truly avoided all those traps - and according to almost every review of the film I've read, he did - it's no small achievement on his part.

[Sam]

Fantastic movie that lives up to the hype. I wasn't a big fan of either Hunger or Shame, but I absolutely love 12 Years A Slave. It was wonderfully-directed. Acting performances are good to great all around. Fassbender is outstanding in the role, his mannerisms were spot on as the manic, abusive and despicable slave-driver.Chiwetel Ejiofor is fantastic. His acting strength lies in the emotional and physical struggle conveyed through body language, especially his eyes. I can see and feel the anguish and pain just by his stares. It was a powerful, but not the in-your-face type of performance, and I love that. Another performance that also caught my attention is by Lupita Nyong'o in the role of Patsey. But really, they were all good. Definitely completely a characters-driven movie and succeeded at that.Storytelling was very effective, I felt engaged throughout. The rawness and sensitive nature of the subject involved was handled, in my opinion, in the most-suited way. Slavery, racism, violence were shown in all their brutality and cruelty, it left you shaken and disgusted. The movie's cinematography and scores were good. It was, overall, a very well-made movie. A

[AniNate]

Oh, god, this movie. And I thought Fruitvale Station was a soul-crushing experience. This is brutal, unvarnished, and one of the best films made about slavery

 

A+