(10) Hunger

Directed by Steve McQueen
Starring Michael Fassbender and Liam Cunningham
96 mins.
Rated R

First-time director Steve McQueen's absolutely brutal look at the 1981 I.R.A. Hunger Strike and their, for lack of a better word martyred leader Bobby Sands has all the touches you would expect from a director who used to make his living as an artist. Several shots are less scenes and more paintings, not there to advance the plot as much as to admire. The centerpiece of the film, a 22-minute unbroken take of a conversation between Sands (Fassbender) and his priest, Father Moran (Liam Cunningham), where he explains his motivation for the going on a hunger strike that would eventually kill him. Obviously unable to break character at all during the scene, the two actors are literally FORCED to become their characters, and its effect on the scene is astounding. It really is a work of art.