'12 Years': The Best Movie of 2013?

For the second year in a row, one of the year's best films is about slavery. But unlike Steven Spielberg's Lincoln, which was an uplifting tale of the demise of our national shame, or Django Unchained, which was a thrilling, fictional action romp, 12 Years a Slave takes a dark look at American slavery and for a (relative) change of pace tells it from the perspective of the oppressed. It also carries the distinct point of being based on a true story; it's adapted from Solomon Northup's autobiography of the same name, released back in 1853. Northup (played by Chiwetel Ejiofor) was a free black man raising a family and making a living as a renowned violinist in New York. But when he was kidnapped and sold into slavery in the deep south, he couldn't dare try and convince anybody in authority as to his identity in a place where simply knowing how to read would be a death sentence for a black man. And so for twelve years, Northup (under the given name of Platt) was forced to pick cotton, build guest houses, punish his fellow slaves, and witness or suffer some of the worst atrocities visited upon man in the whole of our nation's history, all before his eventual (and statistically unlikely) escape all those years later.

We're going to have to learn to pronounce his name, now.

Directed by Shame's Steve McQueen, 12 Years a Slave is arguably the toughest movie to watch in 2013. McQueen does not shy away from difficult topics, and when a whole race of humans were subject to the kinds of dangers that slaves were subject to in the two decades leading up to Lincoln's presidency, there is no shortage of material for the director to mine. Starting with kidnapping and slavery, we see murder, rape, lashings, lynchings, inhuman punishments, families broken up, and people worked to death. That McQueen and his crew can capture the sheer force of that inhumanity and not flinch at the emotional devastation it brings is more than remarkable; when fellow slaves refuse to get involved in an attempt on Northup's life that literally leaves him hanging from a tree for most of a day, you really get a sense of how that depressingly real world worked on a daily basis. Hans Zimmer's score highlights this all nicely, adapting to the events of this dreary world and excelling where it needs to without threatening to overshadow the scene itself.

Wait... is that Garret Dillahunt? I LOVE him!

McQueen also has the help of an all-star cast to supplement his directing talents. Ejiofor has long been recognized as a talented actor, but not necessarily one that has achieved mainstream success. Arguably his biggest role before now came in the British thriller Pretty Little Things, and that was over a decade ago. Here, he makes the argument that we really should have been paying attention to films like Kinky Boots, Serenity, Children of Men and Redbelt in the years before this. When we're tasked with witnessing Northup's trials over his dozen years of enslavement, you need an actor who can carry that load and look impossibly more tired and worn down from one scene to the next. You can't just ROOT for a character like Solomon; his journey demands that he literally be in the gracious thoughts of the audience, to be PRAYED for, even by nonbelievers. As an actor, Ejiofor manages to elicit that quantity of sympathy with his performance, putting forth a masterful showing that so far outpaces anything else seen this year.

Solomon dearly wishes he knew how to quit him.

And Ejiofor isn't alone, though the extensive cast has a "mixed bag" status. There are some truly epic, award-worthy performances here, especially from the likes of Michael Fassbender, Paul Dano and Sarah Paulson. While each of their characters have similar character traits (evil, quick to anger, sadistic folk), their skills prevent them from becoming overly repetitive, also thanks to the fact that they have their own unique motivations and desires. Other actors would be lucky to have such depth to work with; both Benedict Cumberbatch and Brad Pitt put in excellent efforts, but neither is given incredibly much to do, with Pitt narrowly winning out in sheer importance to the story. It never hurts to have such exemplary talents in your cast; sometimes you just wish more had been done with them. That is especially true when noteworthy actors (like The Wire's Michael K. Williams and Academy Award nominee Quvenzhane Wallis) are loaded into "blink-and-you'll-miss-them cameos.

Somehow I don't think he's in the mood for "pat-a-cake"

But even the best films possess a few flaws, and 12 Years a Slave is no exception. McQueen and cinematographer Sean Bobbitt put together some gorgeous shots (Bobbitt's work also excels in The Place Beyond the Pines), but occasionally become lost in them, focusing a bit too long on the beauty of the shot, slightly undermining the nature of the setting. Another quibble (because these are indeed quibbles) is one that other reviewers seem to love, the performance of Kenyan newcomer Lupita Nyong'o. Don't get me wrong, I DID like Nyong'o's performance (even if it's not as groundbreaking as people are saying); it's just that the character itself seems to be a fictional catch-all for black women slaves, a design created explicitly to suffer the tragedies of the era that Solomon Northup was not necessarily in danger of suffering. Again, Nyong'o is fine, but her character seems fabricated merely as a side note to deflect attention briefly away from Northup's story. Personally, I preferred Pariah's Adepero Oduye as a mother separated from her children a more compelling overall character, despite substantially less screentime.

Um, is that Beasts of the Southern Wild's Dwight Henry?

As the closing credits roll, you'll probably never want to see 12 Years a Slave ever again. It's has all the makings of a modern classic, but its subject matter ensures that - while arguably one of the year's best - you're not going to walk away feeling all happy and gleeful and wanting to take your friend to see it as well. It even caps the whole thing off by reminding you that Northup's experience was a unique one; of thousands of free blacks kidnapped and sold into slavery, few were ever heard from again, let alone rescued. 12 Years is a story that took far too long to make its way to the big screen, and the result under the direction of McQueen is quite easily among the year's best. So do yourself a favor and see it once. Even if you never want to see another movie anytime soon, I think you'll agree the risk is worth the reward.

Four Name Free for All

Every week, there are brand new movies released. Whether they can be found in every major movie theater in the country or just a few, a new film gets that chance to break in an audience, or to capture a whole generation's imagination in one fell swoop. Often there is so much out there that even when I really want to see something on the more limited/indie scale, it is wedged out of my schedule by other, more widely-released titles. More than a few times this year I have earnestly meant to see a film in the theater, only to have it fall by the wayside as bigger fare bulldozes it's way through. That's why when Another Earth came out, I was watching Captain America and Friends with Benefits. When Hobo with a Shotgun came around, it was Thor and (hurk!) Something Borrowed. Gnomeo and Juliet was put aside for The Eagle, while Oscar-bait A Better Life was passed up for Bad Teacher, possibly the worst movie of 2011. When Fox Searchlight drama Martha Marcy May Marlene came to theaters the same weekend as Paranormal Activity 3 and The Three Musketeers, it tempted the same fate as those those other limited release films. Thankfully, it stuck at local theaters a bit longer than those previous misses had, and once all the mainstream films I really wanted to see in the theater dried up, I was pleasantly surprised to see that this mysterious film festival favorite was still ready and waiting to be seen. While I suspect most people who wanted to see this film on the big screen already have (I was in fact the only person to sit throughout the entire showing), I was glad to finally get some quality indie film viewing into a schedule packed with so many mediocre blockbusters.

No twin Olsens here!

Two years after her younger sister Martha (Elizabeth Olsen) disappeared off the face of the planet, Lucy (Sarah Paulson) is shocked when that same girl calls her out of the blue and asks to be picked up from a remote suburban town. Without talking about what happened to her with Lucy or her husband Ted (Hugh Dancy), it is obvious that Martha has picked up some odd and out-of-the-ordinary habits from her time away. At the same time, Martha becomes increasingly panicked as she believes she has been followed by the cult she had just escaped. The farm from which she escaped is only a few hours away; there she was "cleansed" (drugged), "loved" (raped), and brainwashed into thinking she was cleansed and loved by the men in the community and their enigmatic leader Patrick (John Hawkes), and then told to turn around to induct other women in the same manner. Becoming more steadily paranoid and delusional, Martha drives a wedge between herself and her sister, creating a gulf that might never be again crossed.

Yup, he plays the guitar, too

The story is told in a smooth blend of current day, memory and dream, each moment giving us just a little more insight into what has happened to Martha over the past two years. As she tries with much difficulty to adapt to everyday life, normal activities so natural that her family doesn't even notice brings back horrific memories of the things Martha experienced and the things that she has done. Haunting in its execution, the story never gives you too much at once, allowing each morsel of news to wash over you so that you can take in the horrific things that happen in these cults. Not bad for a first effort at feature film-making by director and screenwriter Sean Durkin, who eerily knows what strings to pull at appropriate moments.

Cut-off shorts and guns; sexy in the sixties, sexy now

It helps when the cast does such a good job of building the story, especially The OIsen Twins' baby sister Elizabeth. In her feature film debut, Olsen is a blank slate as the movie opens, only to gradually reveal more of her character as her story is presented to us. How she made such a splash out of nowhere would be worthy of a paragraph all by itself, but suffice it to say that we are so entranced by Martha's paranoia mainly because Olsen convinces us that it must be true. Sarah Paulson and Hugh Dancy sadly can't match Olsen's natural talent, but both do a good job playing "normal" types who can't wrap their heads around Martha's strange behavior. Paulson especially does her best in scenes opposite Olsen, as both sides struggle to find any common ground in their conversations, trying desperately to be sisters again but not understanding how. While most of the cultists are a dry bunch (with small exceptions for young actresses Louisa Krause and Julia Garner), John Hawkes once again bursts forth with a performance that hearkens back to his Academy Award-nominated role in 2010's Winter's Bone. While never raising his voice above a barely hushed tone, Patrick's potential for violence and inflicting harm is never doubted and obvious from scene one. Manipulative, cruel, and determined are never good character traits in a man, let alone one in charge of his own private commune, which is why Hawkes does well by never letting us forget how evil he really is, even in scenes of relative good times, such as when he plays a song on guitar for the others in the cult. While this role might not be as remembered (or as well-loved) as Winter's Bone's Teardrop, but Hawkes definitely deserves credit for what he brings in a relatively quiet role.

"It's okay; I'll win the Oscar next year"

Of course, Martha Marcy May Marlene wouldn't be a true limited release title without some sort of perceived flaws to mar what could have been a truly great experience. In this case it's the film's often slower than necessary pacing that does its best to dull some of the quieter moments present. While those issues fix themselves somewhat the closer we get to the story's conclusion, they do a lot of damage early on. Speaking of the ending, the final act also suffers a bit from an apparent lack of conviction, falling short of fantastic and instead residing securely in "Huh?" territory. Still, there is a good film in here for those willing to wait it out, and the great performances more than make this a good option for when you're desperately trying to avoid the mainstream's worst offenders (yes, I'm looking at you, Breaking Dawn). You might want to wait until it comes out on DVD (wait much longer and you won't likely have a choice), and there are a few difficult-to-watch moments, but whatever way you choose to see this title, it's very much worth the time and effort.