12 Years a Slave Review

12 Years a Slave

3.5 stars out of 4

By Brett Takeshita

12 Years a Slave is an essential viewing. This brutal but brilliant epic is the most important film of the year.

12 Years a Slave tells the heartbreaking true story of Solomon Northup (Chiwetel Ejiofor), a free Black man in pre-Civil War New York who is tricked into abduction and sold into slavery. We watch his life as the years go by, and the passage of time is blurred. We see him shipped from plantation to plantation. We see some atrocities that tempt us to cover our eyes. We see him struggle everyday and attempt to survive amidst the worst conditions imaginable. We simply observe -- in horror and awe -- an incredible man's terrible journey from slavery to freedom.

12 Years a Slave solidifies director Steve McQueen's status as a master of cinema. If you've seen his last film, Shame (which is one of the best films of the past few years), you know how he is able to elicit huge emotion with little manipulation. The same goes for 12 Years. This is perhaps one of the subtlest films of this nature in quite some time. McQueen is not actually judging the slave owners and pro-slavery individuals of the time. He is simply showing the truth of a horrible time in America through one extremely empathetic character. Working off of a straightforward (and slightly overlong) yet wonderful script from John Ridley, McQueen tells an emotionally devastating tale that truly shakes us to the core. Some of the violent sequences in the film will be some of the most uncomfortable and relentless cinema you will ever see, but McQueen pulls them off brilliantly. Never is this film easy to watch, but it is so beautifully and powerfully done that it would be a shame to dismiss it.

This is some of the finest, bravest acting you'll see this year. Chiwetel Ejiofor gives a star-making performance that stuns us to the core. You feel every emotion that he feels. He naturally gives his heart and soul to us. He lives and breathes this character, and not once will you ever feel that he is "acting." This is one of the greatest performances of the year. Newcomer Lupita Nyong'o is heartwrenching and masterful as Patsey, a fellow slave who is one of the best characters in the film. Michael Fassbender deserves every single acting award that he has been receiving attention for in a startling performance that horrifies and amazes in each scene. Sarah Paulson is cast against type and is absolutely chilling as the heartless wife of Fassbender's character. There are a plethora of small roles from actors such as Brad Pitt, Paul Dano, Paul Giamatti, Benedict Cumberbatch, Alfre Woodard, and Adepero Oduye that are nothing short of brilliant. 

Believe the hype. 12 Years a Slave will go down in history as one of the defining movies about slavery and American history. This is a movie that engages your brain and your heart. Be prepared for a moviegoing experience like no other.