Bigelow applies her usual style, and produces probably her best film yet

Rating: 10/10 (30 August 2017)

STAR RATING: ***** Saturday Night **** Friday Night *** Friday Morning ** Sunday Night * Monday Morning
July, 1967. The small town of Detroit in Michigan has erupted in a fireball of chaos and violence. In the middle of all this, a group of young African American musicians are hoping to get their moment in the spotlight and perform to a crowd at a local music venue, only for their show to be cancelled and to be forced home by the police like everyone else. They find themselves holed up in the Algiers hotel, but after a reckless shot is fired from a window, they are all rounded up by Officer Krauss (Will Poulter) and his men, in a bid to ascertain the shooter that leaves three of them dead by the end of the night. It's up to Officer Raymond Dismukes (Will Poulter) to keep the peace and prevent any further loss of life.
One of only a handful of female directors in the Hollywood sphere, Kathryn Bigelow has a distinctive style that she's established as her own. Whichever project she's brought to life on the screen, you know it's one of her films you're watching when you're right up close and personal in the action, fully immersed in whatever dramatisation is unravelling on the screen as though you're one of the characters sharing the events. Here, she's shone a spotlight on a particular incident in America's heavily fractured racial history, occurring at the height of the Civil Rights movement and massive social upheaval and change. The tensions of the time elevate the material to an even higher level than it's already managed.
It's a depiction of events that occurred fifty years ago, and the half a century mark might have had some impact on Bigelow's decision to bring it to the big screen. But it's a quirky kind of fate that such a historical event is being portrayed at a time where racial divides seem to be springing up again, whether imagined or factual. But unlike the phoney grievances spouted by the likes of the militant, lawless BLM and ANTIFA today, this comes from a time when the AA population really did face massive prejudice and discrimination, and really did have a fight on their hands, and it's to Bigelow's credit that it doesn't feel like she's forcing any leftist narrative down our throats, and lets events unfold as she's interpreted them.
Performances wise, as the bad guy, Poulter does look a little too baby faced to be taken entirely seriously in such a serious, commanding role, but that's not to say his delivery is without impact, showcasing a hot headed, bigoted lawman who knows he's got authority and abuses it to out-pour his controlling, bullying nature. The rest of the main cast, made up of a raft of current, trendy black talent, including Boyega and Anthony Mackie, are the cowed, powerless rounded up suspects, with the exception of Boyega, as the level headed lawman who must keep his cool in this tough situation. It's from a different time, one most of us can only imagine, and go by what we've learned. And hopefully, we all have. *****