Stunning

Rating: 9/10 (27 August 2017)

The Academy Award-winning filmmaking team of director Kathryn Bigelow and writer Mark Boal turn from the Gulf War setting of their films "The Hurt Locker" and "Zero Dark Thirty" toward the battleground of a racially-torn United States during the summer of 1967 in their new picture "Detroit," an intimate, brutal, and terrifying chronicle of an incident which occurred at the Algiers Motel during the summertime riots in that city fifty years ago.
In "Detroit," a man foolishly fires a toy pistol from a window during an all-night drinking party at the Algiers Motel, and a team of rogue police officers leave the scene of the nearby riots to respond to the motel incident, with retribution rather than justice on their minds.
Actor John Boyega contributes an intricately-balanced, almost saintly performance as a part-time security officer at a local supermarket who's drawn into the events at the motel, and is willing to endure the cardinal indignity of racism as a means of disarming the volatile situation and saving innocent lives.
The ensemble cast also features vivid characterizations from actors Will Poulter, Anthony Mackie, Algee Smith and many others in a story about the sanctity of human life and the sometimes-casual misuses of power.
Coupled with the realization that the absolute worst of human nature can erupt in any person at any moment, "Detroit" is as frightening as any horror movie in recent memory, and is made even more upsetting when the viewer realizes it's all based on a true story— updates on the lives of the survivors appear at the end of the picture.
The lessons of fifty years ago are as relevant today as the terrible night when the events in the story occurred. For that reason and many others, "Detroit" is highly recommended.