12 Years a Slave

 

12 Years a Slave 2013

• Director: Steve McQueen
• Seen by this director: Widows, Hunger 
• Based on the book: no
• Cast: Chiwetel Ejiofor, Adepero Oduye, Paul Giamatti, Benedict Cumberbatch, Liza J Bennett, Paul Dano, Michael Fassbinder, Sarah Paulson, Lupito Nyong’o
• Personal “oh yeah him/her” reaction, i.e. have seen this actor in:
• Chiwetel Ejiofor – Doctor Strange, Dancing on the Edge, Children of Men, Kinky Boots, Love Actually, Dirty Pretty Things, Amistad
• Adepero Oduye – Widows
• Paul Giamatti – The Last Station, Sideways, Cradle Will Rock, My Best Friend’s Wedding, Donnie Brasco
• Benedict Cumberbatch – Doctor Strange, The Child in Time, Sherlock, Richard III, The Hollow Crown, The Imitation Game, August Osage County, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, Small Island, Creation, The Other Boleyn Girl, Atonement, Amazing Grace, Starter for 10, To Kill a King
• Liza J Bennett – The Leftovers
• Paul Dano – Looper, Taking Woodstock, There Will Be Blood, Little Miss Sunshine, The Sopranos
• Michael Fassbender – Macbeth, X Men etc, Prometheus, Jane Eyre, Inglourious Basterds, Fish Tank, Hunger
• Sarah Paulson – Glass
• Lupito Nyong’o – Black Panther, Star Wars The Last Jedi and The Force Awakens
• Brad Pitt - Ad Astra, Once upon a Time in Hollywood, World War Z, The Tree of Life, Inglourious Basterds, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, Burn After Reading, Babel, Troy, confessions of a Dangerous Mind, Friends, The Fight Club, Being John Malkovich, Meet Joe Black, Twelve Monkeys, Seven, True Romance, Thelma and Louise
• Why? Chiwetel Ejiofor
• Seen: 10 April 2021

       1841. Solomon Northrop (Ejiofor) is a free black man in Saratoga, a violinist with a wife and two children. He’s offered a well-paid gig in Washington.

       He doesn’t make it home. He’s captured by slave hunters and transported south to be sold.

      The film deserves all its accolades and none of the criticism. My only objection – why didn’t Ejiofor get an Oscar too?

 5 * of 5