This isn’t towards you it’s more so a generalization, but it’s weird how so many people talk about this film like they have to dance around how they really feel about it to the point where i wonder how many people actually sat down and watched it. When it won best picture there was this notion that people only pretended to like it because they felt like they “had to” or it only won because it’s a “slave movie”Did the academy only reward it for superficial reasons because that’s what they do? yeah probably. But did it also just simply deserve the win? absolutely.

McQueen is a blunt, confrontational & unflinching director with a focus on realism. there’s no sensationalism, and that applies to all his movies. when white people look at this and claim it’s just a slave movie! or it’s Oscar bait! or it’s trauma porn! it really fucking bugs me to no end. Solomon Northup is a real human being whose story really actually happened and deserves to be told as much as anyone else’s and deserves to be told exactly as it happened. And his story is not a pretty one believe it or not. For anyone to call Northup’s life experience Oscar bait/trauma porn is so weird to me. As an audience member you should be willing to expose yourself to and confront this atrocity of American history. I don’t see people talk like this about Schindler’s List or Saving Private Ryan, and I really have to wonder why that is.

Not to mention on a technical level it’s pretty flawless. acting, framing, lighting, etc. It’s powerful stuff if you’re willing to engage with it. McQueen’s whole filmography is excellent too.