12 Years a Slave is based on a true story about a man named Solomon Northup- a free black man who one day gets abducted and sold into slavery. He later wrote a memoir about it and published it in 1853. The movie focuses on how slavery was portrayed, and how much the slaves went through during this time period. This autobiography is painfully realistic and it is a very uncomfortable movie to watch. When the movie was over I witnessed people crying, frustrated, or in total shock.

12 Years a Slave is honestly one of the most powerful movies I have ever seen, and it is filmmaking at its finest. The movie is dark and raw; it exposes everything that happened without sugarcoating it. It seemed like the director purposely lingered the camera on certain moments which involved brutality and other horrible things that were done to the slaves. Despite of all of this, the performances were sensational, the writing was spectacular, and the directing was magnificent. It is honestly a cinematic achievement that has a great chance at winning “Best Picture” at the Oscars. 12 Years a Slave is without a doubt one of the best movies I have seen all year.