15. 12 Years a Slave

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vUQNjfhlREk&w=584&h=390]

I saved the best for last. 12 Years a Slave is a stirring reminder of what a great year its been at the movies, a tour-de-force even better from the year’s two previous masterpieces — Gravity and Before Midnight. This is a necessary cinematic experience that should be required viewing for every American, a movie that looks America’s legacy of racism and  how the ghosts of the past live on with us today. I dare you not to watch the movie and see it blinking back at you. 12 Years a Slave won’t go down as the best movies of the year. It’s one of most stunning movies ever made.