303: Emancipation + 12 Years a Slave

[00:00:07] Hello everybody, welcome back to the Film Buds Podcast. This is episode number 289 and my name is Henry. Just me. This time around, hope that's okay, but we'll still be a great show.

[00:00:29] Elle will be back as soon as possible. But as always, thank you so much for joining us. Please hit that subscribe button if you have not already. Give us a rating, give us a review,

[00:00:40] we would greatly appreciate it. This time around, I'm going to be talking about two films dealing with slavery. First is going to be Will Smith's Emancipation from 2022 and then Steve McQueen's Best Picture winner 12 Years a Slave from 2013. So a bit of a heavier week this week, but still

[00:01:04] incredibly important and these are some really interesting movies that I'm excited to talk about. Well, one big thing podcast wise is if you haven't already noticed, I'm sure you have if you are a frequent listener or subscriber, I have released a new sub-series of episodes on our

[00:01:22] regular feed called Mini Marathons which is probably going to be a once or twice a month release where... and I've already released two because I was a little excited. It's going to be

[00:01:37] five mini episodes or mini chapters released all at once and they will each be talking about a certain genre or style of movie. So new films, classic films, foreign films, documentary, you

[00:01:52] name it, it's going to be in there. And so I figured there are a lot of one-off movies that I don't really have a chance to talk about otherwise or I have to talk about in a very

[00:02:00] informal fashion and I figured hey let's find a way to cover some more ground and they're very short and sweet. They're edited in a way where you can listen to all five episodes without

[00:02:10] stoppages. There's no music, no video clips, no nothing. It's just chapter one, chapter two, chapter three, etc. So check that out and I think they've already been fairly popular checking our stats

[00:02:23] over the last couple of days so thank you very much for doing that and if you have recommendations, suggestions about what you want to see reviewed, tips on how we can improve that series, please

[00:02:34] let us know via the contact information in the show notes, email on Letterboxd if you have one, get one if you don't. And I really enjoy doing those and I'm looking forward to doing a lot more

[00:02:45] because I have so many movies under my belt that I just don't have a chance to talk about as I just said so I'm really happy to get a little bit more covered, do some more indie weird bizarre movies

[00:02:56] that might otherwise go overlooked. Well other than that not a whole lot else going on, I'm on a bit of a vacation right now which is nice so getting a little bit of a break, catching up

[00:03:09] on sleep, doing some FilmBuds stuff. So it's been a lot of fun, a nice little change of pace from things. Other than that please check out our bonus show page at filmbuds.bandcamp.com and that

[00:03:22] is in the show notes as well. There's about 70 bonus episodes there if you've not yet and thank you to those who support it already. Well got a lot to talk about, let's go ahead and jump into

[00:03:33] Anton Fuqua's Emancipation and we do have a clip so take a listen. Alright so as I said Emancipation came out in 2022 through Apple TV, directed by Anton Fuqua, stars Will Smith, Ben Foster, Charmaine Bingwa, not a lot of big names in the movie

[00:04:23] and the synopsis is a runaway slave forges through the swamps of Louisiana on a torturous journey to escape plantation owners that nearly killed him. This one came out around the time of the Will Smith Oscar slap so sadly that event overshadowed this movie I think when it came

[00:04:42] to awards season and I had heard about it a lot in terms of the scale of the movie, Will Smith's performance, the filmmaking, everything and so I was very curious about it but I didn't get around

[00:04:53] to seeing it until late last year for the first time. When it comes to Anton Fuqua I don't know if it's a hot take or not I think he's kind of overrated. I think he gets a lot of big movies,

[00:05:07] big stories, big casts and for the most part he does not deliver if not just disappoint most of the time. Southpaw with Jake Gyllenhaal is probably his best movie in my opinion but the Magnificent

[00:05:20] Seven remake, The Guilty, King Arthur, The Equalizer even I think he typically does not do enough with what he's given and so I'm usually a little checked out on his movies or I'm not rushing

[00:05:34] out to see them but this is one because of the subject matter because of Will Smith even just the scale of the budget I was pretty curious about it and I don't know it's weird

[00:05:45] talking about a movie that's dealing with something like slavery. I don't want to criticize it in terms of the storytelling or it feels weird to do that because I don't want to discredit anything that either was true or that someone actually went through but at the same time

[00:05:57] it is a movie and they're choosing to make a Hollywood film over it so you're open to criticism just as much as any other movie but overall I like the movie it's probably my second favorite

[00:06:12] of Fuqua's. Will Smith is amazing in the movie he was paid 35 million dollars for this role I don't understand why he got so much money for this it's pretty shameful in a sense like for one movie

[00:06:28] getting that much money up front pretty ridiculous but it is what it is Hollywood we could go on talk about that for hours but he is excellent and I guess to a certain extent earns that paycheck

[00:06:42] he is by far the best part of the movie it looks really good it's shot by the cinematographer for Once Upon a Time in Hollywood. The sort of semi black and white washed out color visual aesthetic to the movie is quite different I don't think I've really seen

[00:06:58] a movie done in that way I don't know the exact technical aspects behind that because there's a lot of deep focus cinematography and it is not fully black and white in a way but it kind of

[00:07:09] is so it has this weird middle ground which I really like that a lot and there's a lot of big grand soaring cinematography in terms of flying over these swamps and these big epic grand shots

[00:07:25] so the movie looks amazing in my opinion and is probably Fuqua's best looking movie that he's done to this point. The story itself I'm all up for a good whether it's dealing with slavery or it's

[00:07:37] something very light-hearted I like a good journey perilous journey escape to freedom anything like that that's film that really connects with me in a variety of ways and considering this is at least

[00:07:50] inspired by a true story I can't say all the things that were real and what wasn't but the journey itself is fairly interesting my main issue that doesn't make it a masterpiece that

[00:08:02] doesn't make it as good as it could be is there's something with Fuqua's style where he's come from doing mainly big fairly shallow action movies like kind of macho gunfighting brawling kind of

[00:08:18] movies and then going from something like Southpaw or The Magnificent Seven to this his style doesn't totally translate to me it feels kind of overcooked a little sensational not sensational isn't inherently a bad thing but it's so constantly exhaustive brutal tortures and I'm not discrediting what

[00:08:41] the guy actually went through or that what slaves went through I don't want to water any of that down however and we'll get to that with 12 Years a Slave where picking the moments no matter what the story

[00:08:51] is is pretty vital to something like this because obviously it was a horrible horrific evil time and there was so much brutality and everything else however if you're going to tell a movie you need

[00:09:02] to find the right way of picking your spots in a sense and it seemed like Fuqua often would go towards the action you know fighting with crocodiles and escape action sequences and then the

[00:09:16] army battlefield sequence at the end so he seemed to inject a few ideas of mixing religion and slavery like how white slave owners and other white people involved with slavery saw themselves in terms of like Ben Foster's character refers to himself as God basically and that's interesting

[00:09:37] in terms of how people during that time viewed themselves as evil as it is it's still an idea and you get an understanding in terms of a historical perspective but Fuqua felt like to me

[00:09:50] he would inject those ideas to make it a little bit more complex and resonate more and yet he jumps away from all that stuff really quickly and there's not enough in the script

[00:10:01] there's not enough time in the story to really sit with those ideas think about them contemplate it's more so all right here's this quick little conversation with the white slave owner and then big action sequence escape sequence gunfight whatever and so not that that makes it a bad

[00:10:19] movie or that it discredits some of the things that are in it however by the end it's so constantly in your face sensational violent and brutal that the ending which I won't spoil

[00:10:33] because it's not that old of a movie the ending feels sort of false in terms of what we just went through because really long it's about two and a half hours and there's no real moments of levity

[00:10:46] not that there should be in slavery but in terms of the storytelling and filmmaking so I still like it it is worth a watch considering the grand epic nature of the movie you don't

[00:10:56] really get many big budget slavery movies I mean 12 years of slave was only about 20 million dollars this was about 130 so you don't really get many movies made on this scale with this kind of story

[00:11:09] and as I always say history I love history I'm fascinated by history all sorts of history and I encourage everyone to get some sort of understanding of history because even if you

[00:11:21] don't go out and read big history books or watch a bunch of historical movies or shows it's still pretty vital to have an understanding of history where the world was before where you came from

[00:11:32] and so I encourage everyone at least to a certain degree to spend a little time in your days or in your life looking into that because it is really important even if you don't find it fascinating

[00:11:42] or love history like I do but other than that good performances good score it's never really boring I found it was always moving because it is this escape and that final action sequence is quite well done it's very well directed very intense very violent and brutal but effectively

[00:12:03] so and then there is that moment with the photographer the iconic photograph from that era that I won't really spoil for you because I didn't really know that going in and I really

[00:12:14] like that injection in terms of the true historical significance of the story regardless of what was dramatized or not definitely one of Will Smith's better recent performances if not his best that

[00:12:26] he's done in quite some time I wouldn't be against Anton Fuqua doing more movies like this however even with that being said I typically would rather someone else tackle a movie like this because he doesn't have the finesse of Steve McQueen or other people who have done stories

[00:12:43] like this he's too focused it seems on the big the epic the action not the heart the stories the ideas so check it out just it's a drainer for sure that one is a three and a half out of five

[00:13:01] all right well let's get to Steve McQueen's 12 years a slave from 2013 and do have a clip as well so take a listen hey bass no no no no shame in taking respite from the heat drink shade it's ungodly for travelers party or otherwise

[00:13:23] and what's funny episode merely mean to finish the work at hand as requested and as paid for something rubs you wrongly I offer you the opportunity to speak of you ask plainly so I will tell you plainly what amused me just then was your concern

[00:13:46] for my well-being in this heat when quite frankly the condition of your labor is it is horrid the hell it's all wrong all wrong mr epps they ain't hired help in my property you say that with pride I say it is fact

[00:14:02] all right as I said 12 years a slave come out in 2013 directed by Steve McQueen and this did win best picture as I mentioned stars Chiwetel Ejiofor Michael Kenneth Williams Michael Fassbender

[00:14:13] Brad Pitt Dwight Henry and a few others and I'm not going to get into the details of the movie Dwight Henry Lupita Nyong'o Sarah Paulson Benedict Cumberbatch Paul Dano list goes on and the synopsis is in the antebellum United States Solomon Northup a free black man from

[00:14:33] upstate New York is abducted and sold into slavery well when this one came out it was a huge hit both critically and financially and went on to do quite well at the Oscars and talking about best picture winners which in my opinion most best picture winners are not

[00:14:50] deserving of that it's usually more for an agenda or whatever it might be so most best picture winners I understand why they do certain things but I think of all the best picture winners over

[00:15:00] the last decade or so this is probably one of the more deserving ones I think it is really quite good and obviously the historical significance is there as well but it is genuinely a good movie to

[00:15:11] me before I knew Steve McQueen was doing this movie I was already a big fan of his I love and still love Shame with Michael Fassbender and also his first movie Hunger also with Fassbender

[00:15:25] I think both are amazing and I was really excited to hear that he was doing a movie like this and the cast as well really pretty A-list and I think it is one that everyone should watch

[00:15:40] it's not one you want to re-watch very often or if ever I've seen it probably three times over the years obviously it's very very draining it's horrifying and disturbing and evil but it's also

[00:15:53] a story of true unbelievable courage by this Solomon Northup because of he got tricked one day by these two white men and then woke up in chains and was sold into slavery and that was it

[00:16:08] it's quite a good movie as I was alluding to it's very well directed the sentimentality there that maybe got more of the Oscar votes or whatever I see that and yet it's not really a big thing for

[00:16:20] me I think some people criticize the movie for being Oscar-baity I don't really get that maybe there are certain elements of that but I think it's very minor if at all and everything in the movie feels very authentic especially coming from someone like Steve McQueen he's a

[00:16:37] very in my opinion having seen all of his movies very authentic very grounded very restrained very caring about telling the right story and in the right way she would tell Ejiofor I don't

[00:16:50] believe I'd seen him before this he is incredible of course and the whole cast Brad Pitt is amazing in this in his sequence towards the end I love that sequence both the writing and his performance

[00:17:02] that is one of my favorite parts of the movie he is great in little minor roles like that of course he's great as a leading man too but he's very very good in this Michael Fassbender is

[00:17:13] unbelievable this was really during Michael Fassbender's prime he's come back a little bit with the killer but 2011 through maybe 2016 2017 was prime Michael Fassbender and he has so many great movies and so many great performances in that time and this is one of his best if not

[00:17:32] his absolute best and his scenes with Lupita Nyong'o who she is amazing in it and this was really her breakout role she's gone on to do a lot of great things the whipping sequence towards the

[00:17:45] end where he's screaming like an absolute madman is unbelievable in terms of performance and incredibly brutal of course and don't want to watch it but in terms of filmmaking and evocative power and performance it's one of the most powerful parts of the movie Solomon's Journey

[00:18:07] and also goes with the script and the direction and I read the book before I saw the movie and the book is excellent similar to Emancipation it is a journey film so it's not stuck in one

[00:18:18] place for too long and with a story like this with the tone with what's going on that's a good thing because you're never really settling down too much just as Solomon did it and you see so many

[00:18:30] different facets of the slavery world in that time and the different perspectives both people who were slaves but also on the opposing side as well it's all very very upsetting of course and yet there's still a lot of really touching thoughtful beautiful moments as beautiful

[00:18:52] not in the sense that it's nice to watch but it's visually it looks great and the score is excellent and going along with the pacing and the storytelling each plantation that he goes to is very different because like there's the one with Benedict Cumberbatch and Michael Fassbender

[00:19:09] Paul Dano so you get some breaks in terms of the brutality which is what I was saying with Emancipation where there wasn't a break because in this for example there's the Benedict Cumberbatch character and that has one of the most heartbreaking moments of the entire movie

[00:19:25] where he's the quote-unquote nicer slave owner and he gives Solomon a violin says hey play for us instead of working out in the fields here you go and Solomon is like oh wow I'm gonna get to play

[00:19:38] music again how nice this is such a kind person I guess as much as it can be for a slave owner but then Benedict Cumberbatch says I'm sure you'll be entertaining us for many years to come or

[00:19:50] something along those lines and so it's like okay cool I'm getting to play music again instead of working out in the fields I'm getting a little bit of humanity here but oh wait I'm doing this

[00:20:00] as a slave and I'm not going back to my family I'm gonna be playing music which I love but for a plantation and for slave owners so that's a really come-to-reality moment where he's thinking

[00:20:13] oh nice oh wait so I really think that's very powerful the sequences and conversations with Paul Dano and Solomon are excellent Sarah Paulson's weird sort of controlling relationship with Michael Fassbender is very effective and then Michael Fassbender and Lupita Nyong'o so

[00:20:32] there are so many things going on in this movie that at least in my opinion kind of require multiple viewings if you can stomach it because there's a lot to think about a lot to appreciate

[00:20:42] in terms of the production and talent in this movie a lot of weight to it of course and is definitely one of the best movies dealing with slavery that I've ever seen I'm glad it got the

[00:20:56] release and the praise and the success that it had because it is very deserving of that besides those elements not too long maybe the end starts to drag a little bit but again there's that Brad

[00:21:09] Pitt conversation that I absolutely love the final moments it works a little bit better for this movie than in Emancipation and especially since this is coming from his memoir and at least

[00:21:24] maybe I'm wrong here but I think it's correct this is a little bit more true to form true to life than Emancipation is where this is more based on a true story and Emancipation is inspired by

[00:21:35] quote unquote so definitely check it out if you have not seen it yet got to be in the right mood and I would highly encourage you to read the memoir by Solomon Northup it is really fascinating

[00:21:46] and not too long it's pretty brief but really powerful and very emotional and yeah that is a five out of five all right well with that done let's end off with picks of the week I got a couple

[00:22:03] of things to mention here first I watched the Christmas slasher film Better Watch Out I had heard about this movie I think 2016 is the year it came out could be wrong there but I think so

[00:22:17] I had heard about the movie over the years saw it a lot on letterboxd it was sort of a cult favorite that I gathered and finally was in the right mood to watch it I was in a Christmas already

[00:22:27] Christmas movie mood and I'll get to another one in just a second I thought and I see that there are polarizing reviews for this movie I thought this movie was horrible I could not think of

[00:22:40] another movie in a long time that I hated more than this one I thought it started off pretty well where it's dealing with this babysitter taking care of this young boy and the boy has a crush on her

[00:22:51] and then it looks like it's going to be a r-rated home alone Christmas invasion movie like horror movie though and it's like okay I'm in for that cool and I was really really enjoying it for about

[00:23:04] 20-30 minutes and even though it's a handful of years old I won't spoil it because the twist towards the end of the first act is a big big reveal and it changes the whole tone of the

[00:23:16] movie that's a spoiler on its own I guess but I won't say anything more than that after that part of the movie where a certain character changes and there's other characters injected I was loathing this movie the lead performance is so unlikable unfunny annoying grating frustrating it everything

[00:23:38] you could be negative about this character I thought and I'm fine with no matter the age of the person there being a violent sadistic psychopathic character especially in a slasher movie like this I'm fine with that I don't mind that person being either a background character or

[00:23:54] a lead character I don't care but that performance and it's partly the writing too I hated I could not express how much I did not like watching that performance and it's so in your face all the time

[00:24:07] that I was really disliking it and the rest of the movie there is a little bit of justice I guess towards the end but it's too little too late the movie isn't really violent or gory enough to be

[00:24:18] wow like this is a crazy gore fest Christmas horror film nope it's not really done well in that way it's not well written in terms of emotion character development ideas it's not fun it's not

[00:24:32] funny it's really bad I would like to hear some reviews of people who did really like it I'm up for a movie like this as I said I like cult films I like slashers home invasion weird over the top

[00:24:47] violent whatever you want to call them movies but I really could not stay in this film and so I would steer clear in my opinion maybe that's a hot take again I don't know sorry but I was so checked out

[00:25:01] and ready for this one to be over then I also watched another Christmas R-rated Christmas movie which is silent night from 2012 and this is pretty b-movie slasher it's about a killer Santa

[00:25:18] and very low budget very low level quality I guess not to say that's inherently a bad thing but I did like it more than better watch out that's something not a great movie overall I don't know if I'll

[00:25:32] give it a pass it is so ridiculous at times because there's this killer Santa on the loose and Malcolm McDowell is in this in a very funny role the rest of the cast not so good but I think the

[00:25:45] idea of a killer Santa is quite entertaining and we could use more of those to me as weird as that sounds but not that well directed not that gory but at least the kills and the gores were more

[00:25:56] interesting than in better watch out and it's so bad at times that it is good it's one of those still not one I would ever feel the need to re-watch anytime soon and if you like

[00:26:07] weird low budget slashers you could do worse but it was not a best of that genre or anything like that so just be aware still entertaining still got some good kills and some good one-liners and

[00:26:22] all that just not an amazing movie for sure and then I lastly Elle and I re-watched the great Gatsby with Leonardo DiCaprio the Baz Luhrmann film and maybe another hot take I absolutely love

[00:26:38] the great Gatsby there are flaws to it but the book is one of my favorite books of all time DiCaprio is amazing Tobey Maguire, Cary Mulligan, Joel Edgerton I think the movie looks incredible

[00:26:52] the only thing I don't like is the Baz Luhrmann trope of injecting modern like hip-hop and rap and other styles of music into period films like this it doesn't really work so that would be one

[00:27:05] of my only complaints but otherwise stylistically amazing the story itself the core story of the great Gatsby I am incredibly drawn towards and emotionally attached to every time I watch either the movies or read the book again I am obsessed with the great Gatsby story and the character

[00:27:23] of Gatsby I love that world and those ideas and that optimism and hope that he showcases throughout the story but it's got a great balance of good comedy good drama really sad moments the

[00:27:39] blowout sequence if you will in the hotel where DiCaprio screams in Joel Edgerton's face is unbelievable in terms of performance and I'm kind of like waiting for that moment to happen because it's an amazing call it overdone but performance wise it's pretty unbelievable in terms of that

[00:27:57] sheer anger and violence in his expression and his physicality it's a really amazing piece of acting in my opinion so worth a watch if you have not seen it has a lot of great elements

[00:28:11] and I'm a big big defender of the great Gatsby always will be all right well that is about it for the show next week hope and Elle will be back stay tuned on that be flexible sorry that we go

[00:28:23] back and forth a little bit and please make sure to check out the first 10 chapters of the mini marathon which are now up on the regular feed they are really fun short sweet no-nonsense episodes

[00:28:36] and they cover a lot of different movies so please check that out and let us know what you think of them in whatever way follow us on social media at film buds me and my wife and co-host Elle on

[00:28:45] letterboxd email us let us know what you'd like to see reviewed less of more of say hi anything like that and please subscribe rate review we really would appreciate it and thank you to all

[00:28:56] those who have been tuning in recently we've been getting a big jump yet again so really do appreciate that well as always thank you very much for joining us and we'll see you next time