Will Poulter here is....just wow

Rating: 8/10 (1 August 2017)

"Detroit" is a brutal piece of documentary-cinema from two people who have kinda taken over the mantle Oliver Stone used to have all wrapped up, at least in my eyes, as political activist filmmakers.
Kathryn Bigelow and her screenwriter Mark Boal are now moving away from the war on terror and looking at a war here at home which has unfortunately been going on forever between the police and black people. This particular incident is without question the one of the most brutal and egregious, happening in 1960's Detroit.
It is something else to see the National Guard just rolling in to a U.S city, really on edge and ready for battle. Like one character says, it seems "like Nam". And also like Nam, the civilian casualties really leave you pressed against your seat in horror.
This is a response to all out riots which go on for several days, as a result of black people being rounded up and beaten by the police. Even black service men are treated abysmally.
One thing I wish this movie would have done more with is what is the driving point of wanting to destroy one's home in order to attain social justice? The movie tells us black- owned businesses wrote 'soul brother' on their windows in solidarity with the protesters but they were still ransacked just as hard, but that's all the info we're given.
But regardless of that, Boal and Bigelow have set up a clear bias that the cops consider blacks less than by the time we get to the real heart of the story, and what comes next proves that they were just getting warmed up.
We've seen something like this before and the real tragedy is it always starts with something very small that snowballs into a living, breathing nightmare. We're looking at men being lined up at gunpoint and shot, beaten, women molested, there's more, it's horrible.
This is a horror movie. I've seen "Annabelle: Creation", that's horrific but it's fun. This is the type of horror movie that really does leave you feeling the world is a messed up place. Bigelow really couldn't do a better job of setting this scene. You hear the cracks across the face with the gun, she focuses in on shaking and holding hands for support.
And that cute kid from "Chronicles of Narnia" and "Maze Runner" has this whole other side to him where he can seem like the biggest racist, psychopathic cop among a sea of other racist psychopathic cops. Honestly, I kept looking for a white cop in this movie who seemed somewhat solid in his decision-making and there's maybe one.
Will Poulter is so good in this movie that everyone else kinda seems less than. John Boyega is here as a guard whose just trying to survive the night and pacify where he can, but in the end I thought he came off just as ineffectual as his character does.
Like there is this whole thing in the end of how his character received death threats after all this and really had a tough life but it tells us this in text at the end of the movie and doesn't show. Also the last 40 minutes or so I thought felt like a bit of a slog as Bigelow just seems to be quickly brushing over the outcomes of all this in general.
In the end I liked the movie but felt it could have gotten a bit closer to most of it's characters and given us more insights into those struggles characters faced following this event.
But this really is one of those points in American history where you just leave ashamed to be white; not to say that is the film's purpose cause it's not. It's eye-opening though because "oddly enough", this is a situation where problems concerning race were not fixed and 50 years later, they're still not fixed.
All we're doing is celebrating wins on either side which is ridiculous. People are still happy about O.J. for Christ sake. A guy who knelt during a football season and gave millions to charity still can't get a job.
So I give it an 8 out of 10. If you guys liked this, please check out Craig James Review on Youtube for more.