Overall, the piece is unfocused and ultimately too big, but the central set-piece is tense, compelling and vigorous.

Rating: 7/10 (1 March 2018)

As a whole, 'Detroit (2017)' is too unfocused and too big for what it is trying to achieve, with the first act standing almost entirely alone from the following two and feeling sort of superfluous in the overall narrative. The central set-piece - and even, to a lesser extent, its much slower aftermath - is compelling, vigorous stuff that's unrelenting in its tension and urgency, though. It never just feels like one race against another, but rather humans placed in a situation where good and evil are shown in shades of grey. If you're even remotely human, the brutality and oppression of the piece will make your blood boil and the flick pulls no punches when it comes to the injustice on display. The lack of any comeuppance almost feels like a lack of narrative closure - you truly want to see the perpetrators punished, and this alone is an achievement - but instead it simply emulates the messy and unfulfilling way that life often works. While the story mightn't be entirely accurate to the real-life scenario (the events of which were never accurately established in court), it does work as an examination of what could have happened in a terrible situation that took the lives of three young men, one which is still scarily relevant today. 7/10