Nate Parker's inexperience, but also his passion, really show in this sometimes powerful, but often boring and conventional movie. Sluggish pace, ugly desaturated color palette, generic writing and atrociously filmed and edited action scenes are all signs of a writer/director that has a lot of room for improvement. The character work was also lacking, with Parker asking the audience to care for a protagonist just because he's suffering, while not doing the hard work of actually presenting a likable lead. The religious justification and glorification of violence is also, though sometimes understandable, deeply troubling. The huge historical inaccuracies don't help either, and their connection with Parker's rape allegations are darkly ironic at best, and creepy at worst.

This said, there's good in here. This is a movie that counts on moments, and Parker really banks on those, and they mainly work, as do the performances. But in between them there's just a less gripping _12 Years a Slave_.

I can understand people who love this movie, as I can understand who hates it. Personally, I'm in the middle of the road, but _The Birth of a Nation_ certainly isn't the Oscar contender that Sundance would have us believe.