A riveting drama that manages to capture the realistic experience of life during 1967 Detroit

Rating: 8/10 (15 April 2018)

The riveting drama taking place in 1967 Detroit in the Algiers motel, this film stars various actors including John Boyega, Anthony Mackie, Will Poulter and even to my surprise, John Krasinski. This film takes place in the midst of racial tension and tension between the people and Detroit P.D. Depicting various scenes of violence, robbery and the city turning into a complete war zone, amongst the mess then focuses on the Algiers motel where all of the characters come together to set up the main story.
The whole cast does a wonderful job depicting their individual characters, there is a backstory that can be seen through the dialogue, demeanor and expression of each character. The feeling that these people are real, genuine people and not characters in a movie. This strong sense of realism translates to this conflict amongst the characters which establishes the main drama of the film very well. The way that the film manages to have such great characters with individual story arcs makes them all the more sympathetic and their motives all the more clear and logical. Even in the case of Will Poulter's 'bad cop' you can understand where he is coming from and he shows certain levels of mercy and there is a very clear thought process that can be seen as an audience through the character's actions and dialogue.
Detroit, manages to seem so real, almost to the extent of a documentary and that is precisely what makes the film so successful. Because it exuberates this sense of realism there are stakes that audiences can actually feel genuine emotions, dangers and intensity about. Detroit manages to retell a faithful tale of mistakes, fear, ignorance and pain in its 2 hours and 23 minutes runtime without ever feeling too long or dragged along.