Director: Kathryn Bigelow
Starring: John Boyega, Will Poulter, Jon Krasinski

I’ll be honest. Detroit wasn’t my first choice. But with the August long weekend coupled with a thick blanket of haze that made it disgusting to stay outside (August heat is already disgusting enough), people scrambled into the theatres in droves. I had to choose wisely.

I initially had my eye on seeing the Luc Besson’s mediocre but visually striking Valerian. But with the theatre lobby almost up to capacity, I had to think again. What kind of movie would people NOT see in the summer? Clearly any superhero movie was out of the question. There’s also no way you could pay me to see cold corporate shill that is the Emoji movie. Dunkirk? Good luck! I know! What about Detroit? Surely not many people will watch a depressing historical drama about racial tensions in the United States. (Hint: Depressing historical dramas usually do a lot better during non-summer months.) Well I definitely got away from the crowds by seeing this one. Unfortunately about 30 other people probably had the same idea.

Detroit is a movie that focuses on the Algiers Motel Incident that coincided with the 12th Street riots in July, 1967. 3 black teenage civilians were killed by police, while seven black males and two white females were beaten and humiliated. Tldr as follows: kids were messing around (like kids do) and one of them fires a starter pistol. Police think snipers are shooting at them. They go to the motel and round up the kids. Trying to get the kids to fess up is going nowhere. No one is saying anything. They resort to more violent tactics. The movie later explores the trial of the police officers involved. All were cleared of assault and murder charges. The black community is rightly outraged and the movie ends with aftermath statements of some of the actual people involved in the incident.

Katheryn Bigelow knows how to direct a movie that’s within her scope. I associate her name with historical drama/thrillers and she’s done some amazing work in that genre with Zero Dark Thirty and The Hurt Locker. I wasn’t surprised that she was behind Detroit due to the genre and historical context of the movie. Her signature shaky camera work and grainy footage make you feel like you’re a witness to the actual event. She has a talent for making her movies uncomfortable because of how close you feel to it. Good performances from John Boyega and Jon Krasinski. However, Will Poulter’s role in the movie was what really made me keep watching Detroit. He played the police officer that was leading the assaults against the kids. What terrified me was how his character genuinely thought he was doing the right thing and upholding the law in doing what he was doing. (Now where else have we seen that in history boys and girls? Hint: It rhymes with feminazis) I was skeptical of his role in Detroit because I previously saw him in We’re the Millers rapping to TLC’s ‘Waterfalls’. I suspect he’ll get an Oscar nomination at least for his performance. Hell this movie is essentially a shoe-in for Oscar nominations. I don’t know what it is about Hollywood and their undying love for historical dramas. Could it be because they can’t think of anything new? I mean you don’t really need to put much effort in the script for real events because they happened. But that’s for another post altogether.

All in all, Detroit was gripping and tense the whole way through. There weren’t any boring parts. For these kinds of movies, I can’t laud the plot mostly on principle (real events and even book adaptations don’t take as much effort to create, unlike original scripts). Direction and acting were great, I wouldn’t expect any less from Ms. Bigelow.

Recommendations: Watch it once. That’s it.
Rating: 7.5/10
Oscar-bait? 100%