Steve McQueen - the director.

I think Steve McQueen is one of the most prominent and interesting filmmakers working today. He may only have three titles to his credit, but each feel distinctive in their own ways, and all three are simply great films.





This is how I would rank his work so far:

1. Hunger
2. Shame
3. 12 Years a Slave


I think Hunger is one of the most accomplished directorial debuts in a long time. He deals with a very sensitive slice of Irish history, often riddled with bias and fallacies, and manages to conjure up something very aesthetically beautiful, refraining from all the political dissension. He seemed to discard all customary storytelling conventions by telling his story in a very... unstructured manner. Shame and 12 Years a Slave are great, too, not compromising to the average viewer, and managing to deal with delicate subject matters in a very levelheaded way.


Your ratings/rankings? Your thoughts on McQueen? I greatly look forward to his upcoming projects. Here's hoping the financial and critical success of his latest feature doesn't impact his good run.

Asking about my rating of Shame? Oh, come on!

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1. Hunger
2. Shame
3. 12 Years a Slave +

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Shame
12 Years a Slave

haven't seen Hunger yet, but I will soon

Hunger
Shame
12 Years a Slave +

I'm not specifically going into what I think of him because I don't want another stroke.

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Mark, at the risk of your health...such a low rating for Hunger ? I thought it was a mesmerising film

I've posted this ranking/rating set before, but here it is:

Hunger-
shame- ++
12 Years a Slave- +

A constantly improving director, hopefully the trend continues in his later works.

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I'm not the biggest fan of his work so far, but I haven't seen his debut film yet.
I think his films are too 'dry'. He tackles interesting topics, but I don't really get emotionally involved with his films and they don't really offer any interesting new insights. He has a decent visual eye, but he doesn't really elevate that gift to something extraodinary (in my opinion).

I get what he's trying to do with his films, but they lack emotional connection and depth, at least for me personally. Some other people I know respond better to his films than I do, so it might just be a personal flaw, but at this point he hasn't convinced me of his true greatness yet. I'll still watch his future work, though, but it will be with the feeling of hope, not with the expectation that it will blow me away.

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Cobpyth's Movie Log ~ 2019

Shame
12 Years A Slave

Haven't seen Hunger.

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12 Years a Slave
Shame
Hunger

Some shockingly low ratings in here for 12 Years a Slave. What's up with that? Best Picture backlash or something?

Nope, it's just a bad movie

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Mubi

Shame

I still have to see the other 2

I haven't seen Hunger yet, but the other two are good films.

I agree with Cobpyth that his films are a bit dry and cold and ultimately not emotionally engaging, and this does make them hard to love.

But sometimes I think that this is maybe a deliberate choice. In fact I wonder whether a lot of things that people feel are 'wrong' with 12 Years A Slave are deliberate choices on McQueen's part. That the films come across as distant because they are deliberately trying to distance themselves from other films, or because of their subject matter a certain distance is needed to make the film. If every scene in 12 Years A Slave had the emotional intensity of some of the early scenes, it would be unwatchable.

I like his use of music, long takes and interesting camera angles. Shame and 12 Years A Slave both look great. And they are at least unpredictable, which is refreshing. My major criticism of both Shame and 12 Years would be that both were a bit too set-piecey at the expense of the overall narrative. But again is this really a flaw or a matter of taste?

I think Shame was intentionally un-engaging because it was kind of the point of the movie. However, one of the things that I felt made it great was that it made me care about secondary characters if not the main character. I then found that I did care about Fassbender's character in a way - not because I empathised with him but because I felt sorry for him. A lot of that may just be me rather than McQueen actually intending it

I think there was an intentional coldness to Hunger as well because it's about people in jail. It's up to you whether you care or not - and most people won't because of what those depicted have done. Overall there was no warmth to be find because McQueen's whole point was brutality.

I was engaged by the story and characters in 12 Years a Slave but I thought it was marginally weaker than the other two.

All interesting movies. I think he's an easy target to mock but, probably mostly depending on the "issues" he chooses, each movie he makes next has the potential to be a knockout masterpiece. Casting Taran Killam & Scoot McNairy as the guys who first betray Solomon Northrup made me rethink what I'd thought of him a little, too.

Out of the three, I've only seen 12 Years a Slave, and honestly it was by luck. I liked it best of the Best Picture nominees from the latest Oscars, though Gravity and Dallas Buyers Club were close.