- Starring: Alfre Woodard, Benedict Cumberbatch, Brad Pitt, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Garret Dillahunt, Michael Fassbender, Michael K. Williams, Paul Dano, Paul Giamatti, Sarah Paulson
- Summary: In the pre-Civil War United States, Solomon Northup, a free black man living in upstate New York, is abducted and sold into slavery.
- Director: Steve McQueen
- Genre(s): Biography, Drama, History
- More Details and Credits »
Score distribution:
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Positive: 16 out of 17
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Mixed: 1 out of 17
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Negative: 0 out of 17
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100It's Ejiofor's extraordinary performance that holds 12 Years a Slave together.
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10012 Years a Slave is easily the greatest feature film ever made about American slavery.
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100Though the film brims with memorable characters, the show ultimately belongs to Ejiofor, who upholds the character’s dignity throughout.
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100Though McQueen continues to work his themes of suffering and spiritual transcendence, this unflinching, unforgiving drama is not about a slave, but about slavery itself.
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Sep 2, 201391This revolving door of graphically rendered brutalities might feel like its own punishment if not for an array of astonishing performances that’s practically a one-stop Oscar-nomination shopping spree.
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90Perhaps the nature of the story is such that the film can’t help but be obvious and quite melodramatic at times, but it gets better as it goes along and builds to a moving finish.
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50Steve McQueen's film practically treats Solomon Norhtup as passive observer to a litany of horrors that exist primarily for our own education.
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