“12 Years A Slave is not the story of one man’s struggle. This is not a triumph of the human spirit over adversity. It is an autopsy of a systemic pathology that poisoned a nation, laid bare once and for all by a filmmaker without a sentimental bone in his body. We have seen movies about the horrors of slavery before. This one is about the mechanics.” – The Improper Bostonian, 11/06/2013