12 Years a Slave

Directed by Steve McQueen.

2013. Rated R, 134 minutes.

Cast:

Chiwetel Ejiofor

Michael Fassbender

Benedict Cumberbatch

Lupita Nyong'o

Paul Dano

Paul Giamatti

Sarah Paulson

Brad Pitt

Alfre Woodard

Quvenzhane Wallis

Garret Dillahunt

Dwight Henry

It's 1841 in Saratoga Springs, New York and Solomon Northrup leads a somewhat idyllic life. He is a free black man living with his wife and children and interacting with whites as a near equal. He is also known around town as a excellent violinist. When a couple of out-of-towners offer him a job playing in their traveling show, he takes them up on it. Assured they'll go no further south than, Washington DC things seem to be going well when he goes to a celebratory dinner with his new benefactors. However his world is turned completely upside down when he wakes up in chains, is taking below the Mason-Dixon line and sold into slavery. Based on the real Solomon Northup's autobiography of the same name.

There is one word that I've seen used repeatedly to describe this movie. That word is visceral. The reason I keep seeing it is because it is an entirely accurate description. Every epithet hurled and whip cracked is both physically and emotionally jarring. Each indignation is repulsive. The shame of it all is that this is as much American history as any story that could possibly be told. It depicts the roots of problems we're still dealing with all these years later and it does so unflinchingly.

To make it all work, we need totally committed performances. There can be no a moment where any actor appears even the least bit unsure of his/her character's situation in this world. Throughout the movie there are none. As Solomon, Chiwetel Ejiofor is a man who cannot hide his sophistication in spite of his circumstances, and is powerless to change them. His frustration bleeds into every frame, none more than when he is forced to administer the punishment of a fellow slave. However, he still tries to see the good in people and appeal to that side of them. As you might imagine, the results aren't always pleasant.

As good as Ejiofor is, the performance that makes the movie is Michael Fassbender's as Master Epps. For quite a bit of the film's run time, everything that happens is either his own action or a reaction to him. He is a man who fully believes what he is doing is divinely right. Without even a hint of doubt, Fassbender brings this across with such assuredness that is downright frightening. Playing a less empowered, slightly less scary version is Paul Dano. That he is less scary is not a function of his acting which is excellent, but of his role as someone a bit further down the food chain.

Of course, we can't conclude any discussion of the acting in this movie without giving serious consideration to the work done by Lupita Nyong'o. She became a media darling even before winning the Best Supporting Actress for her work here. She plays Patsey who is something of a star slave on Epps' plantation. She picks more than twice as much cotton as any man on a daily basis. As such she is his favorite. Her reward? He oddly dotes on her and rapes her from time to time. In his own very twisted way, he cares for her. This makes the cruelty she endures feel even worse than it does when suffered by others. Nyoug'o masterfully brings this to life. It is actually Patsey, not Solomon, who gets the lion's share of our sympathy. What happened to Solomon is undeniably cruel and unjust. What happens to Patsey is even beyond that. Much of it is done upon the encouragement of Mary, Epps' wife, in an under-appreciated performance by Sarah Paulson. She has a coldness that permeates the screen whenever she appears. what makes her such an important figure is that she is the one person who bends Epps to do her bidding. She holds a demented moral authority over him. Paulson completely owns this every time she comes into the picture.

Enabling these actors to disappear into the roles, and more than believably reconstructing the world as it was in the mid-nineteenth century, is director Steve McQueen. I've already mentioned how he doesn't let his camera flinch. More impressively, he places it in very intimate positions. The viewer is not just seeing the atrocities take place but feeling them. Making us feel them, no matter how uncomfortable we might get is clearly the goal. This is why he frames the story in a manner that forces us to deal with Patsey's plight, as well as Solomon's. Even as the movie ends, McQueen's still hasn't let us off the hook. It's an effective move. A friend of mine, both of us African American, watched 12 Years a Slave weeks before I did. He immediately texted me that he didn't like it much. Its not that he thought it was bad. It just put him in a bad place. He was infuriated by the visual reminder of the unbridled cruelty of slavery. My response? Dude, that's kind of the point.

Mud

Directed by Jeff Nichols.

2013. Rated PG-13, 130 minutes.

Cast:

Matthew McConaughey

Reese Witherspoon

Tye Sheridan

Jacob Lofland

Sam Shepard

Ray McKinnon

Sarah Paulson

Michael Shannon

Joe Don Baker

Bestest buddies Ellis (Sheridan) and Neckbone (Lofland) are a pair of fourteen year olds who spend most of their summer days exploring their surroundings when they’re not working with someone in their families. On a small island near their homes, the boys discover a boat lodged in a tree. They surmise it got that way due to the recent flooding in the area. With no one around, they claim it as their own. However, they quickly learn that someone has beat them to the punch. Someone has actually been living in the boat. That person is the scraggly looking and aptly name Mud (McConaughey). He appears to be practically coated in a layer of the stuff. Immediately, he begins bartering with the boys to bring him things from the mainland. Eventually, this evolves into running errands pertaining to the girlfriend he says he is waiting for. Meanwhile, we see that Ellis’ houme is not all that stable as his mom and dad appear to be on the verge of breaking up. For him, hard lessons in life and love ensue.

We like Ellis right away. He is adventurous, sure of himself, curious as all get out, and yet, still very naïve about the way relationships between men and wome work. He thinks it’s all black and white. Even when he’s shown it is not, he clings to his most romantic notions. This is the part of him we like most. It’s the part we want to protect. It is also the part that makes us want to shake him enough for him to realize things are not so simple. Tye Sheridan gives a wonderful performance to bring all of this across. He never feels too old nor too young. He feels fourteen.

We are not quite as fond of Ellis’ trusty sidekick Neckbone. It’s just a bit tougher to figure him out. As bits and pieces of his story are revealed, we certainly empathize with him. This stems from the fact that we realize his guardian, his Uncle Galen (Shannon), has very questionable parenting skills.

In that light, it almost becomes easy to see why two seemingly head strong young boys would become enamored with Mud, the homeless guy they bump into. He’s a man by all outward appearances, but he shares many of their same ideals. Mud is a hopelessly romantic man-child hiding from something. Of course, we eventually find out what that is, but even then his problems are revealed to be multi-faceted. We want to hate him, not so much for any harm he’s caused as for his potential to do so. However, his romanticism is so strong we can’t help but feel sorry for the guy. He doesn’t charm us like a number of McConaughey’s other characters. Instead, he comes off desperate and pathetic. This may be what draws the boys to him. Even though Mud is ultimately pulling their strings, he does it in such a way the boys at least feel like they have some measure of control over their interactions with him.

What we are and are not able to control is ultimately the dilemma most of the characters deal with, both emotionally and situationally. This is at the root of nearly every struggle. It is certainly that way with Mud, Ellis, and Ellis’ dad Senior (played wonderfully by Ray McKinnon). It’s interesting to note that the person who seems most in control is Ellis’ mom (Paulson), one of only two adult females in the cast. Arguably, she is the only one. As the movie progresses, she seizes more and more control of her own life.

On the other hand, there is Juniper (Witherspoon), the object of Mud’s desire. She is a complete and perfect mess. What it is that she and Mud see in each other is essentially the same thing. They each look at the other as the one that has already and will continue to save them. Starting with these two and permeating the rest of the movie are these delusions of the heroism of oneself and of others. Even the relationship between Ellis and Neckbone is affected by this.

By the time we get to the end, all the various strands are swirling about but pulled together in a hail of bullets. My first thought was that this is taking the easy way out of a story that spends lots of effort to complicate itself. It even sets up what at first glance is your run of the mill happy ending. Studying it a bit more in depth makes me thing the movie ends on an incredibly dark note. True, the main characters are all smiles and the sun in shining when the end credits roll. Still, I’m left with the sinking feeling that I’m merely seeing how the next repetition of a pair of vicious cycles starts. Worse yet, one of these cycles is the same as the other, just at an earlier stage. Therefore, Mud is a movie that allows you to believe everything is neatly tied in a bow, if that’s what you want, but also makes clear the possibility of a not-so-bright future.

Martha Marcy May Marlene

Directed by Sean Durkin.

2011. Rated R, 102 minutes.

Cast:

Elizabeth Olsen

Sarah Paulson

John Hawkes

Hugh Dancy

Brady Corbet

Maria Dizzia

Julia Garner

Louisa Krause

After two years of not speaking with anyone in her family, Marlene (Olsen) suddenly calls her sister Lucy (Paulson) from a payphone. Surprised and relieved, Lucy rushes out to pick up her baby sis from two hours away. Her and her husband Ted (Dancy) let Marlene stay with them until she can get back on her feet. They don’t realize how far a climb that is. Marlene is obviously damaged, but they don’t understand why. She won’t tell them what we already know: she’s just escaped from a cult.

We watch Marlene try in vain to make the transition back into “normal” life. She seems to know she’s done the right thing yet she can’t shrug off the off-putting communal habits she’s picked up. Neither can she stop replaying in her head the horrors she’s endured. She’s been psychologically and physically manipulated. It all haunts her.

Elizabeth Olson does an amazing job being haunted. She makes Marlene a study in fragility mixed with ill-timed, hallucination or nightmare driven outbursts. At times, she’s an unapologetically brazen, raving lunatic. At others she’s so timid she seems to be trying to hide within herself. All of it is wrapped in paranoia as she’s never quite sure that the people she’s left behind aren’t coming to get her. It’s a high-wire act balancing a plethora of emotions, each seamlessly inhabiting the character so that none feel false.

As Lucy, Sarah Paulson is also very good. She assumes multiple roles in Marlene’s life. She’s both motherly and sisterly. She even tries her hand as an amateur therapist. She probes for clues, and tries to do so delicately in an effort to keep from upsetting the applecart. This proves to be a task easier said than done.

Wisely, the two parts of Marlene’s life we’re shown run side by side through the use of flashbacks. It the tale had been told in a linear fashion it runs the risk of being less impactful. One part or the other would be too dominant. Told as it is, if provides us with easy reference points in the other half of the story. The pain, or the result of the pain we see as it’s being caused stays fresh in our minds.

Despite subject matter that seems ready-made for a traditional thriller Martha Marcy May Marlene forgoes most genre conventions. Where most movies would build towards a dramatic showdown and/or a daring escape, this movie is only interested in the possibility of the former and totally downplays the latter. In fact, escape is the first thing that happens and it’s never mentioned again. As a result, we get a movie that plays more like a slice-of-life than a dramatization, albeit a very dark slice. Like many such movies, the ending isn’t a climax, but a stopping point. It’s an intensely interesting one that opens up plenty of possibilities forcing us to confront the questions it raises without giving us any of the answers.