Hi, this is Dana Stevens, Slate's movie critic, here with a Slate, spoiler special podcast on 12 years A Slave, the new Steve McQueen movie.

And joining me in the Slate Studios in New York is Aisha Harris.

Hello, Aisha.

Hi, Ayesha.

Hi.

And Forrest, hi, Forrest.

Hey, Dana.

You guys are both culture bloggers for Slate, contributors for Slate. You're also knee-deep right now in the slave narrative on which this movie is based.

So before we get started, well, very first I'm going to ask you for a quick reaction.

Then I want you guys to give us a little bit of background on the true story that this movie is based on.

So we saw this together last night, and it's funny, usually coming out of a movie with people that I'm planning on spoiling it with the next day, we have to kind of restrain ourselves from over-talking it and sort of say, all right, hold it, hold it back,

save it for the spoiler.

And this time, because of the nature, I think just of the content of the movie, nobody seemed

inclined to talk about it at all.

So I really have no idea what you guys' reaction was.

So you want to give me just a quick reaction? Yeah, this movie left me pretty wrecked.

I think it's pretty devastating.

I think it's great and somewhat because there's not a lot else, in my opinion, pretty easily, you know, the greatest big American movie about slavery.

And, you know, going into it, as a McQueen movie,

I like his first two movies. I think more than most people. And this is not as like aesthetically overwhelming as his previous movies, but I think it's good that he holds back a little bit and

doesn't, you know, risk aestheticizing it too much.

Yeah, okay.

...