One of the year's very best; Ejiofor gives an Oscar-worthy performance in courage.

Rating: 10/10 (3 November 2013)

12 YEARS A SLAVE (2013) **** Chiwetel Ejiofor, Michael Fassbender, Benedict Cumberbatch, Lupita Nyong'o, Sarah Paulson, Paul Dano, Paul Giamatti, Alfre Woodard, Brad Pitt, Garrett Dillahunt, Michael K. Williams, Kelsey Scott, Quvenzhane Wallis, Cameron Zeigler, Scoot McNairy, Christopher Berry, Bill Camp, Devyn A. Tyler, Willo Jean-Baptiste. Remarkable true- life account of slavery in America based on the biography of freeman African-American Solomon Northup (Ejiofor in an incredible performance that is truly Oscar-worthy), who is tricked and abducted while on a trip from New York to Washington and sold into slavery against his will where he burdens many hardships in his long journey into hell. John Ridley's powerful adaptation of Northup's book is a surprisingly clear-eyed, warts-and-all blinding depiction of how history can be a personal gauntlet in spite of the tremendous odds against surviving. Filmmaker Steve McQueen uses all the archetypes of the Southern 'hospitality' usually seen in the genre of a Civil War treatise but doesn't flinch at all in the underpinnings of what is a true blight of humanity. Equally powerful in their acting (and award noticing) are Fassbender as Solomon's cruelest master with nothing but pure hatred broiling at the surface and a heartbreaking stoic turn by newcomer Nyong'o as the 'personal' slave he terrorizes to no end. One of the year's very best films.