Very powerful and affecting, but could have been even better

One of the best movies I've seen so far this year. The only other movie in the same class is "Hell or High Water".

First, it was very well paced. I never felt for a minute that it was dragging. Also, in a weird way I felt like it was less violent than it could have been. Of course it gets pretty violent in the second half, after the rebellion starts, but the first half of the movie is pretty sedate and does a good job of developing the characters and showing what ordinary life on a "good" plantation was like. This makes the second half more effective because we know what the characters are like.

By contrast "12 years a slave" seemed almost too unrelentingly grim for me, as it was just violent almost from beginning to end. Of course this reflects the reality that Solomon Northup was sold to Louisiana while Nat Turner was in southern Virginia and the sugar plantations in Louisiana had a much more brutal kind of slavery.

The acting was also good all around. Nobody really strikes a false note or overacts and they hit the emotional and comedic moments out of the park.

One criticism I've heard which I can sort of see is that the music is too noticeable at times. It's effective, but sometimes it's very "on the nose" in the more dramatic scenes.

But the other main criticism is that the film engages very well with the emotionally with Nat Turner's rebellion but it could have engaged more intellectually. What was the ultimate meaning of the revolt? How did Nat Turner finally think of what he did? What did the other slaves think? Was he prophet or a fanatic? The movie doesn't really go far in with these kind of questions. As it stands it felt a little bit too straightforward.

But this may have been a deliberate choice on the part of the filmmakers and there's always the possibility that I missed some of the subtle aspects.

But overall, it's definitely worth seeing and just a plain enjoyable movie.