One of our 'Most Awaited Titles of 2013' has long been 12 Years A Slave and very little of that anticipatory impatience is due to its arguable Oscar Baitiness (but yes, I've predicted it for several things back when the April Fools Predix arrived). No, ninety percent of the excitement comes by way of its director (Steve McQueen) who has yet to make a movie that's anything less than unmissable. True, he's only made two features and one of them has its very vocal detractors but if you missed Hunger or Shame it's your loss. They're two of the most striking features of the 21st century
For his third feature he's reunited with his muse Michael Fassbender but this time the focus is on another actor, Chiwetel Ejiofor who has long been on the bubble to major stardom.
Will this potentially potent period drama do the trick? Our Yes, No, Maybe So breakdown follows...
YES
- Shame and Hunger. Hey the names bear repeating
- It'll be interesting to see a challenging black director take on the topic of slavery for a change. Almost every famous example is from a mainstream white director
- I love that creepy odd music that kicks in when Solomon is kidnapped. Anyone know what that's from (assuming it's not the new original score)?
- Chiwetel Ejiofor proved as early as Serenity that he could be just mesmerizing onscreen. Unfortunately he's often been stuck on the sidelines since and the sidelines is not the right place for someone with that much star wattage. Could this be his Oscar role?
- Chiwetel Ejiofor proved as early as Serenity that he could be just mesmerizing onscreen. Unfortunately he's often been stuck on the sidelines since and the sidelines is not the right place for someone with that much star wattage. Could this be his Oscar role?
- At the very least it's Michael Fassbender's Oscar Nom role since Oscar loves Evil Personified in the Supporting Actor category
- Brad Pitt (If you don't know he''s always a plus for me by now...)
- The trailer has a few beautiful shots that suggest that McQueen's visual dynamism will transfer well into period drama
- Any film that gives Alfre Woodard something to do is beyond welcome in 2013
- I'm largely suspicous of "triumph of the human spirit" type of emotional manipulation but I have to say that the "I don't want to survive. I want to live" really got to me. And that's just in a commercial!
Will Steve McQueen's visual gifts be amply evident?
NO
- I don't want this to be misread because both have given fine performances in the past but the Pauls, Dano and Giamatti strike me as risky casting for Evil Racist Slave-Masters #1 and #2 since both like to chew scenery loudly, with their mouths wide open and with no care at all for table manners or nuance... which might be a strong temptation here. Which brings me to the next thing...
MAYBE SO
- McQueen, for all of his prodigious gifts, is not necessarily a subtle director. And those who turned on Shame did so largely because they felt it was just too obvious, heavy-handed, operatically didactic. Slavery is a topic that is easy to dramatize in all three of those ways so it doesn't need any help in getting there. This could go wrong.
- In the end I'm a total "Yes" but is this really as typically maintream Oscar baity as the trailer appears to be? If so, McQueen might well have made his first mainstream movie that doesn't feel auteurial.
Here is the trailer for your Oscar-prognosticating edification...