Nearly everything may have been said or written about the relationship of artist-filmmaker Steve McQueen’s masterpiece to Solomon Northup’s 1853 book relating how he was kidnapped and sold into slavery. But there can be no end to observations on how the true story is unfolded. We know from the title that the protagonist begins, and will end, as a free man, so it’s a question of pacing the narrative. Which McQueen does with absolute mastery, binding the visual beauty or horror of every frame to a genius art of storytelling in film.

Two potential obstacles need navigating while considering Frank. First, despite what it initially seems, this is not an account of the life and times of Frank Sidebottom, the giant-headed character created by maverick musician Chris Sievey. Second, the attitude towards mental health issues exhibited by those close to Frank in the film makes for awkward viewing. Beyond these health warnings, the presence of Michael Fassbender and Maggie Gyllenhaal in this eccentric, touching film makes it more than a curiosity.

As Frank, despite being masked by the disconcerting, big-eyed, blank-faced papier-mâché head of Frank Sidebottom, Fassbender (pictured below with Maggie Gyllenhaal and Domhnall Gleeson) projects child-like wonder, intensity, single-mindedness and vulnerability to such a degree it doesn’t matter whether facial expressions can be seen. The film hinges on this extraordinary performance.

In essence, Frank follows the trajectory of the standard eccentric artist biopic. A tortured genius with a singular take on their art is recognised as such by those close to him and a small audience. After word gets out, a brush with the mainstream ensues. That proves impossible to cope with, so retreat is followed by a form of redemption.

Sievey died in 2010. He initially attracted some attention with the Beatles-inspired new wave-pop of his Manchester-based band The Freshies. After adopting the persona of Frank Sidebottom, he was booked to play London in 1987 just as his keyboard player dropped out. The entertainments officer of the college where the gig was taking place stepped in with no notice and then joined the band. That new member was future journalist Jon Ronson, who co-wrote Frank. The film loosely draws from the experience with Domhnall Gleeson as Jon (pictured below), the Ronson analogue. That is where the real story of Sidebottom/Sievey and Frank the film part ways.

In the film, there is no Sievey and, despite the name and head, Fassbender's Frank is nothing to do with Frank Sidebottom. The new Frank does not step out of character. The head does not even come off in the shower. Our Frank has a manager who knocks him out cold during what appears to be a manic episode. His band members –  including Clara, Gyllenhaal’s always-coruscating, sociopathic, violent yet charismatic keyboard player who won’t admit to being in love with Frank – are an odious, off-the-shelf sneery, self-obsessed, tedious lot exploiting him by riding on the back of his unique vision. He hones these no-talents by rehearsing them relentlessly in a cottage, as Captain Beefheart did with the contrastingly accomplished Magic Band in preparation for recording Trout Mask Replica.

Into this world steps eager-to-please, naïve and unworldly nice-guy Jon, who has ambitions to be a songwriter. He wants what’s best for Frank, but pushes things too far. Jon even uses his savings to pay for the recording of the album when the band’s money runs out. His internet exposure leads them to play the Austin, Texas music industry showcase South by Southwest. It’s an instant disaster, so Frank flirts with making his music mainstream. The few Americans aware of Frank think the strange behaviour seen on the internet is a put-on, and don’t realise it’s not showbiz flannel. The film’s truly intense final moments linger long after the credits.

Frank is a cautionary tale about fragility pushed too far and taking advantage of others. It is wholly more successful than the last film adaptation of Ronson's written work, The Men Who Stare at Goats. Fassbender was courageous to take on the role, and it may well come to be looked back on as among his greatest performances.

Overleaf: watch the trailer for Frank

Some films quite rightly have awards glory etched into their DNA, and when the admirably uncompromising Steve McQueen announced that his next project, focussing on the subject of slavery, would feature that cast, only a fool would have bet against it collecting armfuls of prizes. Moreover, the brutality and societal impact of slavery has seldom been seen on screen; thus in the words of its director, 12 Years a Slave fills "a hole in the canvass of cinema".

Based on the memoir by Solomon Northup (as told to David Wilson) and adapted for the screen by John Ridley, 12 Years a Slave sees an affluent black American – a violinist and family man born free in New York state - pitched into a waking nightmare when he's kidnapped by slavers in 1841. After a night of indulgence during which he's seemingly courted by admirers of his musicianship, Solomon (Chiwetel Ejiofor) awakens screaming in bondage before he's shipped to the south, as mere cargo, and sold to the first of several masters.

Most memorably and extensively, the film documents Solomon's suffering at the hands of Edwin Epps, a drunken brute played with extraordinary ferocity by Michael Fassbender. Epps is a vile but utterly credible beast: a man riddled with self-hate whose explosive lust for the enslaved Patsey (Lupita Nyong'o, pictured above right) leads to him sideline his wife (Sarah Paulson). Patsey is the reluctant object of his affection and, as a result of the conflict this stirs up in him, she's also the victim of his worst cruelty.

The London-born McQueen (a former Turner Prize winning artist) has an exemplary directorial track record, having brought his talent strikingly to bear on the story of IRA martyr Bobby Sands in Hunger and on the subject of sex addiction in Shame - both of which were huge critical smashes and both of which starred Fassbender (McQueen and his muse Fassbender are pictured together below left). Whereas previously his films have been defiantly, dynamically art-house - sometimes so quietly contemplative they border on the spare - 12 Years a Slave is passionate and direct: there's no room for ambiguity here. And yet there's commonality: a marriage of sensitivity to character with fearlessness regarding controversial content; and, all three of McQueen's films have dealt in incarceration of a kind - the inhabitants of the Maze in Hunger, a man imprisoned by his own addiction in Shame and now a man caught in the shackles of slavery.

12 Years a Slave is a true horror story which rages at the obvious injustice of slavery and the horrendous hardships suffered by slaves themselves but, perhaps most remarkably, through Epps and those like him, McQueen draws out the complex reactions of white plantation owners and workers. It shows the detrimental impact of slavery on all those it touches, not just the people it subjugates. It illustrates how society at large is poisoned, how those who keep slaves are rendered crueller and lesser, tortured by both their own capacity for sadism and their inescapable humanity, and how few had the courage to challenge the miserable status quo.

As Epps, Fassbender does the near-impossible by making a man of such brutality not sympathetic exactly but certainly painfully human, laying bare his internal torture. He's an actor who seems to give himself over entirely to his roles and while Ejiofor is remarkable, holding us close on his horrifying journey, what Fassbender does with his character is nothing short of miraculous. And while 12 Years a Slave provides ample meat for its established actors (Benedict Cumberbatch, Paul Dano, Paul Giamatti and Brad Pitt feature memorably), it also helps shape a star in Nyong'o (making her film debut) who is heart-wrenchingly real as the terrorised Patsey.

12 Years a Slave isn't just expertly executed; its source material was shrewdly selected (by McQueen's partner, the cultural critic Bianca Stigter). By choosing to focus on a true story, what unfolds is rendered all the more powerful. Furthermore, Solomon's previous status as a free man, seemingly oblivious to life's worst cruelties, will make it easier for modern, affluent audiences to project themselves onto his character. That's not to play down the film's less commercial achievements, as this could hardly be described as slavery-lite. 12 Years a Slave is a film of searing sincerity and insight, whose central characters are drawn with real complexity. McQueen's third film doesn't just slide slavery under the microscope, it holds it there.

Overleaf: watch the trailer for 12 Years a Slave

The Counsellor is a cinematic room divider: some people will like it, saying it is stylish and daring. Others will find it truncated, slick and pretentious. Whichever room you end up in, The Counsellor has a tang of its own. This violent, colorful thriller overflows with bravado and, like matching collars and cuffs, identical foreboding. The motto here is that bad things happen to bad people but when they're bad people we sort of like, it's different.

Ridley Scott’s latest thriller is the first original screenplay written by novelist Cormac McCarthy. The author, responsible for No Country For Old Men among many others, had the original screenplay published in October and it differs from the finished film in several ways, as most screenplays will. (Hardly anyone locks down a script these days.) What is interesting about this is that it stresses the difference between the media – books are not films nor vice versa. The story can be enjoyed, differently, either way.

The audience know they're in trouble. But as this is McCarthy, we'll hang on

The plot is easy to follow even if there is little explanation for those not paying attention. Counsellor is the handsome and successful lawyer (Michael Fassbender) at the centre of this crime thriller. About to wed his beautiful, understanding girlfriend (Penélope Cruz), he becomes embroiled in an enormous drug deal. Meanwhile, his pro bono work brings him into contact with a female convict (Rosie Perez) whose son is put in jail for speeding. He's carrying $12K on an expensive bike and he's in jail for a $400 fine? The audience can smell the heady stink of “get the heck out of there”. Counsellor cannot. After all, he just bought an enormous diamond for his lady from Bruno Ganz, who explains how diamonds are rated. In many ways, it's the happiest part of the film.

Meanwhile, peculiar gangster type Reiner (Javier Bardem) and his even stranger girlfriend, Malkina (Cameron Diaz, pictured with Cruz), have so much money to burn that she has silver fingernails and they spend the whole day watching a pair of tame cheetahs chase hares over the plains. A deeper discussion includes the line, "I think truth has no temperature." Hearing this, the audience know they're in trouble. But as this is McCarthy, we're attempting art, so we'll hang on. Oh, that  “car scene” – Diaz’s character rubs herself against a windscreen - is not as shocking as it sounds. Reiner’s reaction, however, is worth the ticket price. The whole sequence is sexy, off-putting and hilarious.

Enter Nudie-wearing drug dealer Brad Pitt who is testing out that "know when to fold ‘em" quote from the song The Gambler. He decides, after telling Counsellor how much trouble he’s in, to escape his life of crime and, presumably, go straight. But when there’s $20 million worth of cocaine from Juárez, this is not so easy.

Cold and calculating and too deft for the cheap seats, The Counsellor starts out with a stellar cast and a lot of class – from its production design to its cinematography. But it is a hard sell: a cold story with cold people in it, in a world that is ruthless, harsh and cruel. To paraphrase Thomas Hobbes, some may think The Counsellor is nasty, brutish and short - clearly edited down to 117 minutes. But it could also be called mysterious, upsetting and alluring. The jury’s still out. It may be for some time.

BRAD PITT’S BIG MOMENTS

Allied. Doomed but entertaining attempt to revive 1940s Hollywood

Fury. David Ayer and Brad Pitt take the war film by the scruff of the neck

Inglorious Basterds. Pitt is gloriously absurd in Tarantino WW2 alternative history

Killing Them Softly. Brad Pitt cleans up an almighty mess in Andrew Dominik’s high-calibre crime ensemble

Moneyball. How Billy Beane created a revolution in Major League baseball

The Big Short. Pitt’s on the money as director Adam McKay successfully makes a drama out of a crisis

The Tree of Life. Terrence Malick’s elliptical epic leads us through time, space and one family’s story

PLUS ONE TURKEY

World War Z. It's World War with a Zee as Brad Pitt battles the undead and a zombie script

Overleaf: watch the trailer to The Counsellor