The main reason I wanted to see this movie was because of the director Steve McQeen. I have seen his two previous movies Hunger and Shame. Both of them blew me away by his direction as he never seems preachy or pretentious. He just tells a story and gets out the way. He has an uncanny ability to focus on complex characters. He is very anti-Hollywood. He does movies how he wants to do them and will release them unrated if that's what it takes. He's not into the shaky cam way of directing, actually likes to set his shots up, and explore the world he's bringing onto film.
He didn't disappoint with this movie and lived up to every expectation I had for him, which dealing with movies now-a-days, that a hard feat to achieve. There's only a handful of directors working today that have done that on a regular basis.
His direction was simply amazing and in my opinion completely matched what Alfonso Cuaron did for Gravity. This movie definitely has more weight and complexity than Gravity or for that matter most movies that come out of Hollywood. I was ready for his direction but it was simply mind boggling how better it's gotten since his two previous movies. He certainly a director to keep an eye on as he makes movies.
This movie wasn't at all preachy or pushing an agenda. It simply tells the story of a free man named Solomon Northup who gets conned and sold into slavery and stays there for the titled 12 years as he does what he can do so survive and get back to freedom. That's it, there's nothing more to the story, but it's everything about the movie that makes it great. From the production design, the costumes, and the acting, everything helped to make this movies the sum of its parts.
The acting was simply amazing as they assembled some great character actors. Michael Fassbender was once again astounding. I will continue to see any movie that he's in. He seems to be McQueen's go to actor as he was the main actor in Hunger and Shame, and this is fine with me if McQueen keeping giving him these meaty roles to play. Fassbender is just memorizing as the plantation owner. He plays a person of feral disposition that rides on an emotional roller coaster the whole time. His scenes are chilling because I never knew what he was going to do, ever. I know I'm talking a lot about Fassbender but truly everyone was great in this movie as they weaved their way through the story with ease. Only Brad Pitt was miscast as his star persona completely interrupted the flow of the movie and seemed to remind me that yes I was watching the movie. But then again he did help produce the movie, so I think I can forgive him for that one part, he did a good job with that part but it was just the baggage that he brought to the part didn't gel well with the movie.
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