Director Steve McQueen’s third feature, “12 Years a Slave,” screened for the first time August 30 evening at the Telluride Film Festival with reviews so strong that its inclusion in this year’s Oscar race appears inevitable. While extremely brutal for its depiction of mankind at its absolute worse, the 133-minute epic feels like the must-see film of the fall season, according to critical response.
The movie came to Toronto on September 6 night, and it left audiences in the same state they were in after it screened in Telluride last week: drained, shaken and on their feet cheering.
Playing to a standing ovation at the Princess of Wales Theatre, the Fox Searchlight release had no trouble continuing the momentum it had gained in Colorado.
Chiwetel Ejiofor, Steve McQueen, Michael Fassbender and newcomer Lupita Nyong’o were in attendance at the Toronto premiere, along with co-star and producer Brad Pitt. “If I never get to participate in a film again, this is it for me,” co-star Brad Pitt said during a question and answer session after the screening. “It was a privilege.”
Fox Searchlight will release “12 Years a Slave” on October 18, following its US debut at the New York Film Festival on October 8.
With director Steve McQueen dedicating himself to detailing the “peculiar institution” with as many dreadful particulars as he can, Chiwetel Ejiofor leads a fine cast with a superior performance as the real-life Solomon Northup, a free black man from New York who was kidnapped in 1841 and sold into Southern slavery until being miraculously rescued.
Perhaps the nature of the story is such that the film can’t help but be obvious and quite melodramatic at times, but it gets better as it goes along and builds to a moving finish. Despite the upsetting and vivid brutality, Fox Searchlight has a winner here that will generate copious media coverage, rivet the attention of the black public, stir much talk in political and educational circles and appeal to film audiences who crave something serious and different.
While Chiwetel Ejiofor's name doesn’t roll off the tongue, the British actor has been turning out solid performances for much of his 20-plus-year career. He’s best known for his parts in 2006’s “Children of Men,” “Salt,” "American Gangster" and “Dirty Pretty Things.” But this is one of the few times he’s been able to showcase his formidable talents in a lead role.
