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Review: 12 Years A Slave

by Taylor Sinople on January 8, 2014
12 Years A Slave
Overall Rating
10
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Solomon Northup (Chiwetel Ejiofor), a free negro and talented musician living in New York City in 1841 is unable to verify his identity when he’s captured and sold into slavery where he spends the next twelve years under the harsh supervision of plantation owners.

With “12 Years a Slave,” director Steve McQueen continues to develop his unflinching habit of calling attention to things we’d rather not think about – political unrest (“Hunger”), sex addiction (“Shame”), and now American slavery in the 1800’s in this harrowing adaptation of Solomon Northup’s memoirs. Again present are all of McQueen’s auteur flourishes: a rich, somber, string-heavy score by Hanz Zimmer, Sean Bobbit’s strong, naturalistic photography, and an appreciation for the anguish that a human face can express.

Chiwetel Ejiofor (“Children of Men”) is a strong, relatable presence in a film that wouldn’t work without an approachable lead performer. Ejiofor in a matter of two hours establishes himself as one of our great actors, bringing the film into emotional overdrive despite McQueen’s sometimes distant, aloof treatment of the material.

The many motivations behind violent racism drive this powerful cinematic experience that’s at times overwhelming in its dolefulness. “My sentimentality extends the length of a coin,” a slave auctioneer (Paul Giamatti) remarks when begged not to split up a mother from her children. Benedict Cumberbatch and Michael Fassbender serve as two of the plantation owners that Solomon serves under. Cumberbatch is one of the film’s only shades of hope as a slave owner that can at least see the value of Solomon as a human being – offering him the chance to play the violin again, but doing nothing to return him to his rightful place as a free man. Later, Solomon is sent to work instead for Edwin Epps (Fassbender), a volatile, brutal slave owner that draws on religion, superstition, and sheer madness to fuel his wickedness.

In a long list of attributes to the pristine production, the most remarkable is that McQueen knows when to hold the shot. Most notably in a scene in which Solomon is nearly hung from a tree but is kept suspended just above the ground – his toes barely touching the wet mud beneath him – left for hours while the plantation’s white children play games in the distance. Here, and in a few other crucial points, cinematographer Sean Bobbitt’s camera holds, unfaltering, and subjects the viewer to an uncomfortable confrontation with the small details involved in human suffering. While so many films released this time of year are made for the Oscars, “12 Years a Slave” is the type of film the Oscars were made to recognize.

Release

U.S. Wide Release: November 8, 2013 | U.K. Wide Release: January 10, 2014

Runtime

2 hrs. 14 min.

(All Reviews), Biography/History, Drama, Reviews
Benedict Cumberbatchbrad pittChiwetel EjioforLupita Nyong’oMichael FassbenderPaul DanoPaul GiamattiQuvenzhané WallisSarah PaulsonSteve McQueen
Benedict Cumberbatch, brad pitt, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Lupita Nyong’o, Michael Fassbender, Paul Dano, Paul Giamatti, Quvenzhané Wallis, Sarah Paulson, Steve McQueen
About the Author
Taylor Sinople
Taylor Sinople
Taylor is a Chicago-based writer and aspiring film historian. He is the editor here at TFP, and has contributed to a number of international publications such as Cinema Scandinavia, PopMatters, and Room 101 Magazine. He can also be found listening to podcasts, researching topics he has little use for, or running after a city bus.
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Benedict Cumberbatchbrad pittMichael FassbenderPaul Giamatti
 

Review: The Imitation Game

by Josef Rodriguez on December 8, 2014
Morten Tyldum’s sophomore feature, based on the life of Alan Turing, is an emotionally charged biopic that turns its fact-based story into, surprisingly, a beautifully rendered romance about young love and a man’s relationship with memory and machine.
 
August Osage County

Review: August: Osage County

by Taylor Sinople on December 15, 2013
“Violet, my wife, she takes pills,” Beverly Weston tells her, “sometimes a great many.” Johnna is interviewing for a job in Beverly’s (Sam Shepard) very large and very empty Oklahoman home. She is to be tasked with preparing food, cleaning, and driving Beverly’s wife to chemo treatments for her mouth cancer. Just as Beverly is […]
 

CIFF 2013: “The Fifth Estate” Review

by Taylor Sinople on October 13, 2013
Oscar Wilde: “Give a man a mask and he will tell you the truth.” Is the mask of Hollywood-scale cinema enough to elucidate the WikiLeaks empire? It was hard to miss the irony of having two men in suits confiscate the audiences’ cellphones prior to the advanced screening of WikiLeaks biopic “The Fifth Estate.” In the world […]
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