12 Years a Slave - Film.

12 Years a Slave (2013)

Director: Steve McQueen
Starring: Chiwetel Ejiofor, Michael Fassbender, Paul Dano
IMDB: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2024544/?ref_=nv_sr_1

I often find it difficult to go into a film that is so hyped, so tipped for Oscars like 12 Years is. I find it impossible to just not look for flaws, it's a bad habit that I want to break. 12 Years is a film that passes my horribly cynical test by being really damn good with one big exception. Good stuff first though.

It's an incredibly well directed film, featuring pretty magnificent shot after pretty magnificent shot. There are a few absolutely amazing scenes that have McQueen lingering quite a while on one particular thing. They are scenes that could easily be overly long and boring, but they work. One in particular is tough to keep watching but also fantastically well done.

The acting from nearly everyone is spot on. Fassbender and Ejiofor are of course the actors getting most of the recognition, I personally loved Paul Dano as a weasel of a man. Paul Giamatti is also someone who plays his role of scumbag perfectly. It's almost sad that 12 Years move at such a speed with some of the actors. It does really effectively bookmark Solomons life though, and gives the film a pretty interesting structure.

The only real problem I had with the film is Brad Pitt. Pitt can be a great actor, but in 12 Years he was geniunely bad, downright bad. The film is grim, murky and pretty brutal, Pitt does not gel with that at all. He has a comical beard only matched by his comical accent. It's almost as if he was channeling Inglorious Basterds.

Pitt aside, 12 Years is worthy of all its buzz and a film that is well worth watching.