Detroit Packs a Powerful Punch and Leaves You With an Ugly Lasting Impression

Rating: 9/10 (7 August 2017)

*Minor Spoilers Ahead* After the animated introduction (which I won't spoil the content of) Detroit begins in the city of Detroit, 1967. A party is being held at a backroom bar for the return of a Vietnam veteran. The cops break up the party but a crowd gathers of mostly African-Americans. The cops are almost exclusively white but all the patrons being rounded up are African-Americans. Instead of trying to explain their actions, the cops are quick to move on from the scene. Someone throws a bottle at one of the cops and the looting begins. Unfortunately, the 12th street riots are underway.
Even having watched some really gritty movies lately (Shot Caller and Dunkirk) I still had to admire how Detroit drops you right in the middle of this tumultuous period of Detroit's history. The action is in your face and they don't shy away from the brutality. Although Detroit feels firmly grounded in reality, the movie does have a sense of style. The beginning has an animated segment that isn't pretty and they use it to drive home the hopelessness of the situation. It certainly does the intended job. While the action does hit home, the shaky cam did push the envelope and there were a couple of times I wish they had stayed a little more static. There were some quick moments where the camera could cause a little motion sickness.
Addressing the elephant in the room, Detroit was given the green light because a lot of these issues are still stuff many people grapple with on a daily basis. Its not something that people like to discuss but that doesn't mean that it doesn't take place. One of the things that surprised me about Detroit is that they don't force a ton of comparisons to the present day upon the audience (Free State of Jones was an example of something like that). The horror of the material speaks for itself and they didn't need to jam metaphors about how times haven't changed down our throat. These problems do exist and hopefully this movie will help some people come around on those issues but the story is completely self contained and I actually appreciated it for doing that way. They trust the viewer to draw their own connections and it isn't common to take such a mature approach.
Detroit dips its toes into a couple of different genres but where it works best is when its in the thick of this terrible situation. It is an engrossing and tense thriller. This movie is so hard to watch, a couple of people left the theatre and I honestly couldn't blame them. Things get downright brutal and where some stories play with some of the characters having ambiguous motives, this is not one of those. The villains are disgusting and their behaviour is downright heinous so there isn't a question of who your rooting for. Every turn the story makes, things get nastier but you can't turn away.
Detroit's cast is well rounded and there is definitely some excellent acting from everyone involved but 1 person kind of steals the show. Will Poulter is the villain of the piece as Krauss and he puts on a show that rivals Michael Fassbender in 12 Years a Slave. This feels like a coming out performance for him, his character is so detestable but I have to tip my hat to him. John Boyega gets top billing as Dismukes and he handles the material well but this was more of an ensemble. I was also surprised that Anthony Mackie made an appearance, he's one of the more accomplished actors in the cast but he's in a supporting part. He acquits himself well though. Algee Smith and Jacob Lattimore are both excellent as Larry and Fred. Hannah Murray and Kaitlyn Dever are also really good as Julie and Karen respectively.
If I had one complaint about Detroit (other than the fact that the subject matter is super depressing) is that by the time you get to the end of the movie, it does begin to drag. This is a long movie and I get why they had to include so much but I was hoping for a quicker resolution when we got past the 2hr mark.
Detroit was always going to be a controversial movie but the movie steers into the skid. I more or less fall on the critics' side, this movie has a tight story that is more topical than we would like to admit. I can't verify if it's 100% historically accurate, there's been some debate in the other user reviews and I'm willing to concede that they probably took some liberties with it. But judging it as a movie, I was shocked yet I couldn't turn away from Detroit. I would applaud Kathryn Bigelow for handling this touchy issue so well and despite the length I would recommend giving this a chance.