The film industry, the Oscar blogging industry, Hollywood and the Oscars themselves have never seen anything like 12 Years a Slave. Even the best reviewed films of the last ten years did not achieve similarly universal acclaim. This praise comes from international critics as well, not just the Americans. It’s worth noting because we are headed into the hottest competition month of Oscar season. November. By December, the pieces start stacking up behind a handful of contenders. Any film that presents itself now and moving forward has to best 12 Years, which now has the best reviews of any film, but has also won the Audience Award at Toronto.
It’s a formidable Oscar contender at the moment, challenged by Alfonso Cuaron’s crowd pleasing Gravity, which keeps on making money everywhere. Both of these films will leave the Kodak on Oscar night with at least one Oscar but probably more. What, if anything, can trump a film that seems to confront Hollywood’s treatment of slavery, and in its own way, Oscar’s history. How many, if any, films have there been about the horrors of slavery that have won? The only film that has won Best Picture that had anything remotely to do with history was Gone with the Wind, which won in 1939. But that film featured “happy slaves” who were willing to follow their masters anywhere. The beautifully subtle version of Scarlett O’Hara was an unflattering portrait of a spoiled, selfish woman was an appropriate symbol for the Confederacy – but they never went there. But the horrors of slavery? Untouched.
Schindler’s List depicted the brutality and horror of the Holocaust. Titanic was a romanticized view of the tragedy but it also revealed the truth about who died that night and who was saved. And so we come to 12 years a Slave, a film that finally tells the cold, hard truth from the perspective of those enslaved. Why did it take so long? Why did it take a British director and tricky financing to get it made?
Either way, however the Oscar race turns out, it’s worth noting how the critics have reacted. Expect 12 Years to sweep most of the critics awards, probably New York, Los Angeles, National Society, Southeastern, Online, Chicago, etc.
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Meanwhile. “All is Lost” arrives this weekend at my Cinemark at Bella Terra. I shall be in attendance.
I believe it’s in the bag for Cate.
I see so many movies a year that if something in my Top 5 wins the academy award I’m happy. Blanchet is well in my top 5 so I’ll be ecstatic if she wins. I subscribe to the notion that she’s somewhat overdue. Should probably have two Oscars already (i.e. I’M NOT THERE)
Cate Blanchet just did it all for me; funny, tragic, sexy and believable. Just too good.
Agreed. I had the same experience watching her. More like coming at me.
Kane, I’ve seen “Gravity” a few times. She was no worse or better on successive viewings. BTW, Clooney was BRILLIANT in the scene when he “re-appears”. He is charming and really delivers a key speech with just the right notes. The direction and production are the real stars here. though.
I did like Bullock’s physicality, but her line-reading sounded like…um… line-reading. I like “Gravity” and I like Sandy in it, But Cate Blanchet just did it all for me; funny, tragic, sexy and believable. Just too good.
Bullock’s performance astonished me at first, then I realized I loved the film around her more. Right now I consider it overrated (but still great) but I remember Sasha saying something a while back that she noticed how truly amazing the performance is the 2nd time she saw Gravity because of how overwhelming the visuals are. I should watch again before I cement my feelings.
It was just unbelievable that they could do a film about Lincoln’s feelings and politics on slavery and not have Fredrick Douglas
This sentence is laughable
ZDT is Maya’s story like Raiders of the Lost Ark is Indiana Jones’s – you’re rooting for him or you may as well leave the theater.
Thanks. More to consider.
Sandra Bullock’s performance is VASTLY overrated.
I think you’re wrong. She’s amazing. Deserves to win Best Actress –not that is matters in the larger picture. Reminded me of great performances by Falconetti (soul-stirring prolonged close-ups) and Keaton (communication via physicality).
Lincoln was complete failure as a history lesson in my opinion. I felt like it was hero worship. If Tony Kushner had shown a more complex and layered narrative it would have been able to match it’s visual content.
A brillant scene would have been when Fredrick Douglas and other black leaders met with Lincoln in the White House and he offered sending blacks to colonies. It was just unbelievable that they could do a film about Lincoln’s feelings and politics on slavery and not have Fredrick Douglas. It’s laughable.
I agree with all of Benny Tarleton’s comments, and I don’t even know what “puerile” means. “Gravity”‘s execution is off the hook, but the narrative is thin and Sandra Bullock’s performance is VASTLY overrated.
Northeastern Illinois University just put a plaque on building dedicated to: “… Abraham Lincoln, Democrat.” Yes, ladies and gentlemen, this is a place that “teaches” our youth.
Gotta love the quote from Bill Clinton (the irony): “[Obama’s] luckier than a dog with two d*cks.”
And anyway , for those folks who still cannot see the writing on the wall about 12 YRS , they must truly have no political instincts whatsoever …it probably didn’t dawn upon them that Obama was going to be re-elected until he was back in the Oval Office with his feet upon the desk , puffing , triumphantly , on a big cigar …a keen grasp of the obvious ?…., not quite …Romney and his close supporters actually thought they were going to win , for christsake ……well , I mean , talk about the wilfully deluded and the hopelessly blind ! ….I even read recently that a high profile Romney supporter bet 4 Million dollars on Intrade that he was going to win ……he was utterly and completely out of his facking mind !
Comparing GRAVITY to 12 YRS is puerile , like comparing STAR WARS to Schindler’s List ….one is merely popcorn eating, light entertainment while the other is what the movie industry SHOULD do best ….highlight past events of great political or moral crises to reach and educate folks who are unlikely to go read a book …out of the millions of folks who will watch and be educated by this movie , exactly how many would have previously picked up a book called ”12 years a slave ” ?
GRAVITY winning Best Picture ?….it is NEVER going to happen
Comparing the early success of LINCOLN to 12 YRS is utterly bogus …..the critical difference between the two is that while Lincoln was a success as a history lesson , it largely failed to entertain and as the film critic Rex Reid pointed out , somewhat unfairly , it was a ”colossal bore ”…indeed it was the atmospheric performance by Day Lewis that kept the movie on it’s feet
12 Yrs will NEVER be called boring that’s for sure ….au contraire , it’s a true white knuckle ride that is first rate entertainment and a History lesson
The final scene of American Horror Story: Asylum shows that Sarah Paulson is one of our finest actors.
I was unfamiliar with Sarah Paulson, but I was mightily impressed. Her performance has been somewhat unsung compared to some of her castmates, but she was just remarkable.
unlikely hood, you hit it well enough that any person with a brain should be able to make the connections. One necessarily follows the other (at least in my opinion) but then I am skeptical of anyone’s brain power who makes that complaint.
I haven’t really thought too much about what categories 12 Years can get nominated in. It’s tough, for example does it even qualify for Make-Up? Clearly CGI was used, not only for Patsy’s eye, but during the creation of the welts in the whipping scene, so I’m not sure if that will disqualify it. Is it good enough for Make-Up anyway? Probably not, but who knows, maybe they will love the film and nominate it anyway.
And Art Direction (or whatever it’s called now) and costumes. This isn’t the type of historical-based film that usually gets noticed since they aren’t shiny and elaborate. But they are convincing. But I’m not sure the Academy cares about how convincing they are.
I do hope Sarah Paulson gets a nomination however. I think her scene when she gives Platt the grocery list is just plain phenomenal. Maybe it’s my love of American Horror Story that persuades me, but, oh well, at least I know the cards I’ve been dealt.
Mine too.
thanks rufus! though I don’t think I dealt with the lapsing time issue head-on. well, maybe.
Bryce I think I summarized my own position badly. And I sorta don’t wanna go down the ZDT rabbit hole again. But I would make the case that the films you mentioned don’t ask you to accept something as immoral as torture or killing as necessary evils – as audience members you are positioned as not-necessarily-on-the-lead-character’s side. Same with Dog Day Afternoon, one of my favorite films, and an excellent exercise in realism, and we do feel for Sonny – but I would say we’re not *quite* convinced that we would have robbed a bank if we were him. ZDT is Maya’s story like Raiders of the Lost Ark is Indiana Jones’s – you’re rooting for him or you may as well leave the theater. Yet we’re also told that this is as real as docudrama gets…I find it a toxic cocktail, when you know, you have to know, that this is the exact film Dick Cheney would want.
I hasten to add that Kathryn Bigelow was big-time SNUBBED for a Best Director nomination. Only Spielberg and Lee deserved it more. Zeitlin and Haneke were fine choices, but Beasts and Amour weren’t better-directed than ZDT. For her to be left out in favor of Russell was a travesty.
Anyhoo talking about ZDT feels like staying at the Hotel California – you can check out any time you like, but you can never leave
Tree of Life
Steve50, I am inflating 12YAS’ box-office and thus quickening its demand for expansion.
Does anyone else think “12 nominations for 12 Years a Slave” has a nice ring to it?
Rufus
So are you man. I assume you mean A SEPARATION was your fave in 2011.
Also not the amorality of Lawrence is not as readily apparent as Maya’s, but I’ll go ahead and throw in LAWRENCE OF ARABIA. Like ZD30 both contain allegorical indictments on America and the West.
You’re still swell, Bryce. Funny thing is, assuming twelve years in the end-of-year darling, this will be the third year in a row I agree with them, and I hardly ever do!
unlikely hood, I wanted to elaborate on your themes because I get wrankled when I see people complain that it doesn’t feel like 12 Years pass during the course of the film. But then I reread your post and saw that I can’t really add to it, that you captured what I tried to say once before but failed (I literally failed as my computer lost connection briefly when I pressed ‘submit’ and it got lost in that damn series of tubes.)
It is interesting to note, however, that McQueen made sure to include slaves of all ages in this film, we are constantly treated to children and seniors alike. It is the only physical evidence that time is actually passing, that life is being lived. And it’s all the more heartbreaking.
THE ASSASSINATION OF JESSE JAMES BY THE COWARD ROBERT FORD?
my 4th screening of 12 Yrs.
them’s fightin’ words.
previous film that ever asked us to accept such lead-character amorality alongside such (ostensible) veracity.
Off the top of my head? Oliver Stone’s NIXON and/or ALEXANDER, but I guess the former doesn’t pass the test of ostensible veracity, and the latter doesn’t pass the test of being a good film.
This is a great chanllenge tho. Let me get back at you with either titles or surrender.
Thanks rufus, steve, bryce – appreciate it, really.
Bryce if you google “12 years a slave django” I think you’ll see that the maligning of Django isn’t confined to academia. Most of those first 20 links toss QT right under the bus – unfairly, I hasten to add (as I wrote above).
Sorry you weren’t more absorbed with the film, oh well. I’d sing the theme song to “Diff’rent Strokes” but that feels inappropriate. If you’re referencing ZDT as this site’s darling last year, I can only remember my lonely, lonely arguments that basically agreed with The New Yorker’s David Denby – it’s perhaps the best radical realism since Battle of Algiers; it’s also a flawed masterpiece because it excuses torture as a main part of its story. Every time, I compared it to something different around here (Silence of the Lambs, Three Kings, Gladiator, Raging Bull, were four of the dozen films I used) and dared anyone to come up with a previous film that ever asked us to accept such lead-character amorality alongside such (ostensible) veracity. No one ever could, but that didn’t stop everyone from disagreeing with me.
If you have that lonely struggle this year, God bless you sir.
Yeah, Dallas Buyers Club looks like a hoot. Saw the trailer Sunday before my 4th screening of 12 Yrs.
OT: Saw “Blue Is the Warmest Color” today. Not overly impressed. A little creeped out at the age difference/life experience of the characters when they first met. Looking forward to “Dallas Buyers Club” on Friday.
Regarding the slow rollout, I beg patience. With no stars in the main roles, no 3D glasses involved, and a title that doesn’t equate with a Saturday matinee and a large popcorn, all 12 Years a Slave has going for it is critics and audiences alike shouting that it is outstanding (which it is). This film is a text book case of a platform release if there eve was one. Fox Searchlight has always been quite good at this, and come December it should be doing nice busniness in about 1500 theatres, and stay around through the entire victorious awards season.
Having now seen 12 YEARS A SLAVE 3 times. I can’t help but still be moderately disappointed. I fault primarily the screenwriter, and to a lesser extent McQueen. I gotta gather my feelings and put them into coherent thoughts as the season progresses. There is so much I admire in the film. First and foremost the performances. Everyone is well casted and everyone delivers –even the smallest of roles. There’s also much I admire about the craft involved, but as a whole it didn’t affect me and satisfy me as nearly as most of y’all. I guess it’s going to be the second year in a row when I fail to connect with the best reviewed American film. Much like with ZERO DARK THIRTY, the performances stuck with me, and I’ll be a big proponent of they getting recognized this season, and like with Bigelow’s film several technical aspects greatly impressed me. The emotional connection I felt with the characters and the story the first time I saw it diminished significantly with subsequent viewings. More often than not I’m in sync with the critics (i.e., THE SOCIAL NETWORK, THE TREE OF LIFE/A SEPARATION, THERE WILL BE BLOOD/NO COUNTRY, A PROPHET/HURT LOCKER) I guess the disconnect phase continues.
Having said that,
As per usual that’s a tremendous piece, unlikely hood. Agree with almost everything, but mainly disagree when you observe that DJANGO UNCHAINED is “now” a “much-maligned” film. Granted, it could be because I don’t spend my time reading detractions of Tarantino’s film though I am aware of some critics including in their 12 YEARS reviews a comparison with the Tarantino film which invariably results in McQueen’s film being the deemed “the right way to do it” (I think the comparison is at least ill-conceived, but that’s another post). I wasn’t aware this happening was as widespread as you make it sound. From what I remember, the film received critical acclaim, of course it wasn’t as universal as 12 YEARS’, but what films do? It was a box-office hit, people loved it, it won 2 major Oscars, and from what I gather -empirically- people still love it and re-watch it a lot. I’m also not aware of any “major” critic reversing their praise now that 12 YEARS enlightened them. Anyways, I think “much-maligned” is a bit of a stretch. Maybe in your academic circles?
I had to go to metacritic to count the 100s myself in order to believe the tally is at 33! That is amazingly beautiful. 12 Years a Slave will win the Oscar for best picture and director… and I hope several other key awards too, but those two are already in favor of 12YAS.
I saw the film for a second time this past Friday with a friend, and she was pretty messed up afterwards. I didn’t cry at TIFF either, but I was more… in deep thought and sad, and I guess, stunned. Beautiful film that I hope more and more people go and see. This is a film that deserves to be seen in a theater, not saved for home viewing on the DVD.
Emotional.
Compare the emotional effect of 12 Years to Gravity, and you’ll see the first reason Gravity is so weak.
Well, like Antoinette, I’m going to be a victim of the super slow rollout, too, which is unusual. It’s not playing here and I can’t get an opening date from anyone. Have to get drunk from somebody else’s cork, I guess.
tomorrow or Wed, rufus. Just had a full house check-out, so I’m scrambling to get time to get into town as soon as possible before the next check-in. Can hardly sleep, fer crissakes, because it’s so close.
McQueen is in the tunnel with us, holding up a mirror.
Unlikely hood, well said, sir.
I wish I could take your class, unlikely hood.
THE UNBEARABLE STILLNESS OF BEING A SLAVE by unlikely hood
(spoilers)
Another generation had its unbearable lightness. In 12 Years a Slave, we repeatedly bear witness to an unbearable stillness. A few times, it’s a tableau of a group of slaves seen from the waist up, ostensibly awaiting instructions. Another few times, it’s a close shot on the thoughtful visage of Solomon Northup (Chiwetel Ejiofor). Once, it’s him calling for help as the camera pans up to a sedate U.S. Capitol building, pinprick-sized curls of smoke mutely confirming that the trading of flesh is just ongoing business. Later, it’s a wide shot of him dangling from a tree branch by a noose, his feet scraping the ground just enough to survive, as we the audience wait to exhale.
Most often, the story’s stillness is represented by a twilight shot of unmoving Louisiana willows. Some might say that the meaning of those trees is that they are still somewhere in Louisiana, young by tree standards, and able to bear witness to atrocities that many Americans consider more distant than the era before gunpowder and printed books. I see the trees as part of the stillness. Of course, slavery was marked by spasms of unthinkable violence, and the film hardly ignores that, but the film’s motifs demonstrate that to live with slavery was to live frozen. In this film, in these 1840s, slavery is immutable, like malaria or fields that need plowing. It’s always been around; it will always be around. Sure, people like Bass, played by Brad Pitt, will speak of a day of reckoning, but don’t we have those people today, warning of unsustainability in whatever area? (And what a way to underline that point, by casting today’s most famous man.) Here, Northup has been dropped into a frozen situation, like a prehistoric mosquito set in amber.
Are there any birds in 12 Years a Slave? If so, I missed them in those many outdoor shots. Since at least the Bible, storytellers have used birds as shorthand for freedom, beasts as shorthand for righteous lifelong servitude. In this film, cottonworms make an elaborate appearance, but horses and pigs are barely seen. (Solomon’s plot-crucial journey from Saratoga to Washington is covered in one shot of a carriage, or what was then called a cab; we don’t see its horses.) The absence of visible animals as natural metaphor seems to me a conscious choice, one that’s kinder to the film’s white characters than the story needed to be. These people aren’t like birds nor dogs; on some level, they’re all trapped in this antebellum system. Too, the absence of animals underlines the point that this film is about a human problem – not to be resolved by anyone else in the Great Chain of Being.
Never before have filmmakers shown us the unbearable stillness of slavery. Most reviews don’t comment on it, except for Mark Harris, who says that director Steve McQueen’s “use of stillness and painterly composition is, at different moments, the strength of 12 Years and its weakness” and goes on to call McQueen “a Kubrickian control freak. His camera never catches anything by accident; he doesn’t leave room for surprise.” http://www.grantland.com/story/_/id/9868597/12-years-slave-best-actor-race Perhaps Harris was thinking of the airlock-tight Wes Anderson. There are surprises aplenty in 12 Years, but what Harris doesn’t even countenance is that the stillness has thematic purpose (unlike Kubrick’s most indulgent moments). The characters are frozen even – especially – when they’re not shackled. McQueen’s film carefully captures the terrible reality of being captured: most of the time, you’re not actually in chains, metaphoric or otherwise, yet you’re in an awkwardly calm purgatory all the same. The extent to which the film convinces you of a disquieting “new normal” is the extent to which it’s exceptional.
Another commentator said the whole film should have been about Patsey (Lupita Nyong’o). If that’s the sequel/spin-off, I’m not sure my heart can take it. Here, Steve McQueen, the director, uses people who’ve been known to carry their own films – Paul Giamatti, Benedict Cumberbatch, Alfre Woodard, Brad Pitt – and shows them almost ceaselessly doing things (even Woodard is maintaining a tea party). Mark Harris missed this, but it’s as though the stars are having their own films, controlling their own lives, while Chiwetel Ejiofor can’t control his. McQueen, a visual artist before he was a director, has set video monitors in the rest of the rooms of his gallery, so that you will be more held fast by the painting in the main room.
Some of the press on the film strikes me as a bit unfair to previous efforts, particularly the Roots mini-series; it’s not as though cinema has never shown slavery from the slave’s perspective. But Kunta Kinte was going places, his family’s situation changing over generations; Solomon is waiting for Godot. Unlike Didi and Gogo, Solomon was forced into this situation by injustice and violence. It’s hardly fair to knock the film for ignoring the news of the day, like organized slave rebellions and the Compromise of 1850. One might as well complain that the woman in the well in The Silence of the Lambs should have heard about the first Gulf War. These characters are paralyzed; signs of change haven’t come to this part of Louisiana. If we know history, we know that’s hardly unrealistic.
All outstanding films rely partly on timing. No sequel to a classic can wait twenty years and expect to capture lightning in a bottle again (see: Godfather, Star Wars, Wizard of Oz, etc.). Hollywood did 12 Years a Slave a tremendous favor by promoting, releasing, and succeeding with Lincoln, Les Miserables, and Django Unchained a year ago. Had 12 Years a Slave been released two years ago, the reaction might have been, “why are you bringing all this up?” Instead, McQueen and John Ridley (the co-writer) can reply to those three films, and with something like, “did you say slavery? I thought you meant SLAAAAAAAAAAvery.” But let’s not throw 1/3 of last year’s Best Picture nominees under the horse-cab too quickly, especially not the now-much-maligned Django Unchained. I can’t count the number of articles that counted Tarantino’s use of the n-word. I have yet to find one that counts 12 Years’s – well, besides mine. (12 Years used the n-word about 2/3 as much as Django.) Tarantino’s revenge fantasy did McQueen a great favor by whetting our appetite for the reality. Because Django was permitted to finish like Dirty Harry, it’s easier for us to accept Solomon as later-era Clint Eastwood, where every life is precious.
12 Years a Slave is well-timed for a much more important reason. Let’s give credit to Spielberg for seeing the current shenanigans in our nation’s capital and unraveling a tale that glorifies the sausage-making that will eventually get us out of it. Spielberg is at the end of the tunnel, shining a light that we can barely see in the distance. But McQueen is in the tunnel with us, holding up a mirror. The quotidian quality of much of the film parallels our own “new normal.” We are stuck, as the latest self-inflicted crises only confirm, by our own human choices. Despite our best efforts, we cannot really imagine a way out, short of death and destruction. We are Solomon and Patsey and even Epps.
Finally, I’ve read complaints that the film is too episodic, too picaresque; this strikes me as a gross mis-reading. Solomon Northup is branded and saddled into inertia, but he isn’t utterly entropic; Ejiofor’s dinner-plate eyes are always on the prize. He tries to avail himself of opportunities for freedom – he pushes back against unfair masters, he attempts to run away, he takes a white man into his confidence and is almost destroyed for his efforts. But no, this story doesn’t begin with him as a post-deliverance narrator, steadily building up to the moment of his return home. The title tells you that he will return (or die), and that’s all you need. Instead, along with the occasional, almost random bursts of terror, you are stymied just as Northup was stymied. In a medium defined by narrative arcs, like Northup, you are arrested. In a country defined by freedom, like Northup, you are trapped. That is why 12 Years a Slave is a great film unlike any other, and as necessary for understanding our nation as any film can be.
I should also point out that the Grantland article from above is the best thing I’ve seen written about 12 Years at this point in time.
when are you seeing 12 Years, Steve, I’m awaiting your reaction!
While there is no such thing as a sure thing with regards to Oscar, the critical balance sheet for 12 Years looks awfully strong to deny, at least without looking a bit screwy.
I also think things have graduated beyond the basic subject matter comparisons (which area stretch, to begin with) which make it easier to vote for The Butler over 12 Years. Like choosing instant pudding over mousse – says more about the chooser than the pudding.
Picture, Director, Adapted Screenplay, Actor, Supporting Actor, Supporting Actress, Original Score, Production Design, Costume Design, Makeup. That’s just to start. All deserved. Incredible film; my heart is still racing.
I don’t think anyone considered Lincoln a sure thing at this point last year. Yeah, it looked like a solid frontrunner, but with Les Miz, Zero Dark Thirty and Silver lInings PLaybook yet to be released there were three heavyweight films in the wings that were strong contenders.
As one who thinks 12 Years has the BP race on lockdown this year, I will be shocked if anything truly threatens it or if there is a substantial backlash. As strong as Lincoln was last year, 12 Years is far stronger. It’s the strongest frontrunner at this time in Oscar memory. Heck, I think it’s even stronger than LOTR part 3, which I would probably place as the strongest frontrunner at this point in time since I’ve been paying attention.
For those who would like to see 12 Years take home the Best Picture Oscar, you should be careful about calling the race too soon. It’s this kind of over-confidence that we see year after year in the media that causes a backlash. (Lincoln was the sure thing at this time last year.) 12 Years is a very good film, but it’s being overhyped at the moment – which makes the field open for someone else to swoop in.
This is no surprise for me. I watched McQueen’e previous movie “Shame” and it was a very well directed movie. He is not a typical Hollywood guy so I was sure he would come up with something special in 12 Years a Slave.
12 YRS has an explosive and atmospheric ”something ”… a moral core , an emotional centre , a grave and serious subject matter about American history , but also highly relevant today ….none of it’s competitors has anything remotely comparable and as any astute political analyst surely knows , you cannot beat a ”something ”with a ” nothing ”
A question for anyone who might know – what’s the deal with the Hollywood Reporter story last week saying Paramount was threatening to sue Pitt’s Plan B for not giving them the opportunity to finance TYAS? I was LMAO because they undoubtedly would have laughed in Pitt’s face. Pitt’s friendship with Brad Grey not withstanding, Paramount closed Paramount Vantage because they no longer wanted to be in the prestige film business. Now TYAS is a huge critical success and Paramount is fronting like they’d have financed if the film if given the chance. Is there anything to this story or is it simply the new THR under the guidance of former tabloid editor Janice Min looking for dirt where there is none?
Kyle Buchanan called it correctly from Toronto on 6th Sept …12 YRS will win this Oscar race easily , but only the wilfully blind refuse to see it
awwww… hey Antoinette we back together for more film debates for another year of inevitable uunjustified Oscar shocks and disappointment ey? 😛
And don’t despair however long it takes for 12 years to come up where you live remember we down in Australia sooo…we will only see it here way after you see it so your not last..your just a bit ltr is that comfort enough for you? hoe are you? I hope your well take care.
I look forward to hearing your insights and your thoughts on what I said? are critics groups not grinding themselves into irrelevance through the overkill volume of critics groups? they diminishing the quality of awards season with their hubris no?
12 Years goes wide this weekend. it’s done pretty well so far. My guess is that it ultimately does about $50M, unless it becomes a phenomenon like, say, American Beauty, which just kept making good money week after week.
Anyone who can get through the trailer for August Osage County without throwing up has a stronger constitution than me. Wow does that look horrible.
It will hardly be a complete joke if 12 years don’t win the Oscar. There are FIVE other contenders with a metacritic value over 90 and plenty more with a value in the 80s.
If something like The Butler (66) or August Osage County (67) win, then we can talk about a joke. But only with reference to a lack of quality as conceived by a maximum of 48 reviewers. They are not Olympian gods, you know.
Antoinette, perhaps by December 12th when the Golden Globe nominations are announced.
You guys said they’re going to roll this out super slow right? So I probably won’t see it until after Christmas? *sigh*
Reading this has truly made my day. It warms my heart to see a film based off a horrific time in history generating high accolades and plaudits! I’m still hoping and praying for a best picture win at the Academy Awards! I will literally cry tears of joy!
Truth be told. my real name is Sean Hannity. Tune in to my news program weeknights a 10 on FNC. Love that “12 Years a Slave” from our sister studio Fox Searchlight Pictures.
Wesley Morris is such a genius. Read his piece on 12 Years a Slave.
http://www.grantland.com/story/_/id/9870721/the-cultural-crater-12-years-slave
Frank Rich’s piece is very good…
http://nymag.com/news/frank-rich/liberal-feel-bad-movies-2013-11/#print
his point is that the racists won’t go, and the few that do will revert to FoxNewsImmersion, so we should not over-estimate the impact or believe it is an effective answer to present day racist outrages. A fair point.
A good movie is a good movie (re-reward GWTW anyone?), but to Rich’s point. Uncle Tom’s Cabin did not cause slaveowners to repent. It inspired millions of northerners to go forth, shoot and kill the motherfruckers in battle…. and empowered hundreds of thousands of former slaves to revolt and do same.
Monuments Men will be a 2014 release and not in competition this Oscar season.
Now cmon cmon people recent history suggests that critics groups etc hold less clout and influence cos there are too many of them and sasha unless the bafta and Oscar go a films way a film as we knw can dominate critics metres and circles and afteeall press with respect this site sometimes too get sucked in to critics hype.Note iit a starting poinbt in a race not a means to a end. There is more limitations in film critic meters ans critics circles and too much a stench on their self importance.
As it happens u article reinforces my earlier comment that Oscar is open season this year. It the key guilds and bafta that are the ONLY precursor for thiS that follow Oscar season yr upon yr u see the obvious.
I encouraged by such high qualitfilms. I saw captain Phillips again.this film will surely make a best pic nomination . I even predict a surprise nomination of one of the Somali pirates too xpect a surprise. Can’t go past gravity scope and intensity and epic feel. Dnt discount monument men , clearly now 12 yrs a slave note critics could be pushing themselves into irrelevance cos too Mich competition in each state they are little more than tabloid fodder for entertainment headlines unlikely they shape final outcomes in who nominated guilds batts will they all that matters
Full disclosure. On my second viewing a patron walked out. 3 minutes later he returned with more popcorn. It’s Oscar time.
@Joe Clinton
Live in Wisconsin and just saw it. Zero walkouts.
With a budget of just $20 million, “12 Years” should end up with a tidy profit. It isn’t even in wide release yet, and after it is covered with award nominations, there’s no telling how much it could earn. “The King’s Speech” had a similar trajectory.
It’s troubling that “12YAS” and “Ender’s Game” have similar per screen averages this weekend. I sense that if “12YAS” wins BP, it will join “The Artist, ” “The Hurt Locker,” “No Country…” in the under $100M club.
Vincent, just last year “Django Unchained” didn’t exactly sweep. I believe “12 Years” is already living up to any hype.
Well stated, Curtis. All this skittishness about audiences is such a non-story. Perhaps when the film is in excess of 1,000 screens and is in rural middle-America, we can re-visit it.
Remember when Ricky Gervais said something to Kate Winslet about “do a Holocaust film and you’ll win your Oscar.” I feel that way about “12 Years a Slave.” Everyone is going to fall all over themselves over it because if they don’t, they’ll be labeled a racist and in favor of slavery. I hope it lives up to the hype.
12 years made 4.6 million In only 400 theaters this weekend
If has an A Cinascore
94 flixster rating
8.5 Imdb
All this talk about the movie being to rough for people can now be out to rest because now it looks like critics are not the only ones raving.
33 100s is just amazing.
The violence in 12 YEARS comprises far less screen time as in PASSION, though that isn’t why I am not a fan of the latter.
“12YAS” is a fine film. Slavery was brutal. Whippings occurred and their explicit depiction is necessary.
“The Passion of the Christ” was a fine film. The brutal scourging of Jesus of Nazareth occurred and its depiction was necessary.
Many critics referred to “The Passion” as “torture porn,” but now? Nope.
If 12 Years loses to Gravity, it will “not be a complete joke”. That film is just one point off the overall score of 12 Years in Metacritic.
Now if 12 Years loses to something like “The Butler”, then maybe I agree that it will be a “complete joke”.
This is extraordinary. I’m not sure if Metacritic is the best tool, and whether you can accurately compare year by year. Maybe critics are throwing out 100s more than they were when the site was first launched. Still, it’s becoming increasingly clear that if 12 Years loses, it’ll be a complete joke, the Oscars–well, that is, if the public sees the movie.
Despite many more late entries yet to see, I am so gladdened by the universal critical acclaim for “12 Years”. As for audiences, I must say that in four viewings, I have seen nobody walk out during the more troubling scenes of violence. And at the conclusion they seem properly devastated and utterly moved. I can only hope this translates into a hit once it is in much wider release.