Hmm, if you check the poster for 12yrs A Slave you'll see it has all these 5 Star reviews declaring how wonderful it is. The reality being however, it's just average.

I guess most reviewers are picking up on the fact that abuse to African Americans actually happened, which is of course true, and to this day, very hard to believe. But then abuse to women (for example) takes place regularly too, so if this movie featured a kidnapped woman undergoing the same abuse would it be lauded as Oscar material? I doubt it. In fact many films have been made on that subject and they've passed us by.

12yrs A Slave boasts many big movie stars and they do carry their roles quite well, but the reality is, this film has little in the way of story. A kidnap, some abuse, a rescue, end of. Maybe it's so "shocking" for some as they don't normally experience any kind of harrowing cinema? I just found the whole thing very timid indeed. But I guess old men in suits don't award true cinematic horror much value.