Twelve Years a Slave stars Chiwetel Ejiofor as Solomon Northup, a man living in New York during the mid-1800s who is kidnapped and sold into slavery in the deep south.
First up, I’d just like to say that I think 12 Years a Slave will be a great movie. It looks gorgeously shot, it has a fantastic cast, and Steve McQueen is a solid director. But my god, is this not the Oscariest movie you’ve ever seen? I mean, for starters, it’s a heartfelt movie about struggling beneath oppression – the Academy eats that stuff up – but on top of that, it takes a bunch of stuff from previously Academy acclaimed films and mixes it all together in one package. It’s got the slavery theme from Django Unchained, stars some of the cast of Inglourious Basterds, and also features a bunch of non-Tarantino-related Oscar winners and nominees like Chiwetel Ejiofor, Quvenzhané Wallis, Paul Dano, and Paul Giamatti! There is no way this isn’t getting nominated in all the top categories.
12 Years a Slave comes out October 18, 2013, in limited release.