Detroit (2017) Reviews

• No Redaction Will Be Allowed

  totalwonder2017-12-22

  The facts, not alternative facts but the facts. Once you have that then the artist comes and tells us, dramatizes, enlightens without distorting the facts. I was sweating when Detroit ended but I needed to go back and check the historical records of the events. The movie is a faithful depiction of the facts with the artistic eye of the amazing Kathryn Bigelow to illustrate them. The film will make you mad, it will desolate you and anger you and force you as an American to ask yourself, how can this possibly be? Detroit as an artistic venture is a marvel with a cast of fantastic actors. Bravo!

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• What Happened...Not Why It Happened

  bkrauser-81-3110642017-08-02

  The poster of Annapurna's newest film, Detroit hangs at my local theater like a provocation. A thin blue line of police officers struggles to hold back angry black protesters as big bold letters are scrawled along the side. The tagline reads: "It's time we knew." Those words, along with the required "from the creators of..." accolades are the only things on the poster that aren't sideways. They might as well be though, considering the 1967 Detroit riot is about the only thing about Detroit most Americans know. And I'm sad to report that while the film does a good job of filling the screen with a few powerful moments, it never provides much insight into the "untold" story of the Motor City or how its story fits into the larger context of modern racial relations. After an awkward Jacob Lawrence inspired history of the Great Migration, the film captures the precipitating actions of police that turned the city's long sitting racial resentments into a lit tinderbox. In a hybrid of dramatization and archival footage, Detroit then glosses over the actions taken by the state to subdue tensions before setting its sights on a host of singular stories. It becomes high noon at the Algiers Motel where unarmed black teens face off against white police and National Guardsmen. Then comes the trial. All of these events could have been their own movies and delved into deeper depths as to the cause, devastation, aftermath and public perception of what was later dubbed the black days of July. Yet because Mark Boal's screenplay is so laser-focused on documented events and momentary minutia, everything is squished into an off-kilter collage of well-meaning but superficial docudrama. One whose central story, the Algiers Motel incident, is treated more like a genre horror film than either a granular traumatic event or police brutality in microcosm. Detroit basically pulls a Dunkirk (2017), building unbelievable tension while giving us the bear minimum in character. It's all about the situation and the situation only. The recreation of which is beyond reproach. However, Detroit's grand design creates a narrative dissonance. One in which the individual experiences of real people just don't translate all that well. The problem is compounded further by Barry Ackroyd's unvarnished cinematography which cuts between extreme closeups of wounded faces, voyeuristic overheads and wide shots of crowds angrily gathering in the streets. The lack of establishing shots, aerials, use of recognizable landmarks etc. hammers home the idea that something like this can happen anywhere. But the question, why can it happen anywhere, remains illusive up until we here the words "police criminality should be treated the same as criminality." By then it's too little too late. Luckily director Kathryn Bigelow is very adept at inserting humanity within the margins saving Detroit from being just another Patriot's Day (2016). She finds a particularly redemptive subject in Algee Smith as up-and-coming Motown singer Larry Reed. The young actor displays an emotional intelligence well beyond his years, formulating a character that starts out with youthful swagger, ends with a shaken core, putting you in his head-space at all points in-between. Additionally, while most of the films attempts to color opposing forces with shades of grey fall flat, Reed's arc feels tragic but sadly understandable given the circumstance. Unfortunately for both Bigelow and the city of Detroit, Detroit's script casts too wide a net to be especially impacting. It's procedural approach stifles the emotional stakes and its over-arching theme is turned in with much less humanity and passion than is deserved. Even with a towering performance by Algee, and the inclusion of Will Poulter who plays menacing/in-over-his-head real well, Detroit just can't transcends its trappings. To add insult to injury, the film itself was shot primarily in Boston...so there's that...

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• Detroiter Here

  doctortv-235152018-03-27

  I was hoping for more. The movie was long, but I felt like the emphasis was on the wrong things. Motive was glossed over. Torture scenes were drawn out. Why were the cops so evil and the detectives "enlightened"? Having lived through those times and knowing public servants from that era, I think they way things were portrayed was not true to form. The acting was strong and the content was emotional, but here in Detroit this case is still hotly debated and I am not sure the filmmaker captured how it is seen here.

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• Great Filmmaking with a Point Of View

  rleach20002017-08-06

  Unless you believe the Black Lives Matters movement has unanimous appeal, do not expect the reviews of Kathryn Bigelow's "Detroit" to garner universal praise. By no means does this movie play it safe and, for that reason, it does not seek or expect mass appeal. I suspect that the film will unleash fierce critics of "Hollywood Liberal Bias" and generate howls from those who want to remind us that most cops really are good as well as others who are equally vocal and can't stomach seeing more non-threatening citizens brutally murdered by policemen of a different stripe. "Detroit" is a movie that is set in 1967 but it is a statement about the type of policing that continues to occur far too frequently in many African American communities. Just as it is not possible to talk about the recent events in Ferguson, NYC, Minneapolis,Baltimore, Chicago, Charleston, Cleveland etc., etc. without expressing a particular point of view, "Detroit" will also reveal many pf our biases as we process the portrayal of the searing events as they may have occurred at the Algiers Motel in the midst of a race riot. "Detroit" will also force us to talk about our preferences for films that move and disturb us over those that simply entertain and the amount of "historical accuracy" we expect to see in non- documentaries that are set in earlier times. Bigelow shoots the movie with an unflinching eye and her point of view is obvious. She errs on the side of the cringe worthy and outrageous when depicting evil and the actors are committed, inspired and superbly directed. "Detroit" is a film that is as difficult to watch as any two hour merciless tragedy involving people we know and care about and it is deeply stirring as it incites (if not assaults) our emotions. This is a stunning film but well crafted art, like our own reflections in the finest of mirrors, isn't always pretty. "Detroit" intends to upset, provoke and unsettle and, by that account, it is an unmitigated success.

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• This film beats you over the head until you cry "uncle"

  PotassiumMan2017-08-12

  This dramatization of a major incident of police brutality that took place during the 1967 Detroit riots starts off strong. It has great period detail in recapturing the Motor City in its roiling state of anxiety and resentment- an image of a great city on the verge of combustible catastrophe. A growing sense of anger and lawlessness is well-captured here. Furthermore, the film boasts vivid performances by an exceptional ensemble cast. Will Poulter is a standout as a violent, psychopathic police officer who cannot subtract his personal prejudices from the line of duty. John Boyega is also effective as a private security guard who makes a good faith effort to keep the peace but soon finds himself questioning his own judgment. Unfortunately, where the film goes wrong is its decision to have a key police interrogation and torture sequence go on so interminably and so relentlessly that ironically the film loses its power and emotional grip in the process. The evil that is portrayed here goes from convincing to almost cartoonish. A viewer might be forgiven for no longer having their head in the film once the narrative finally moves on. Although no one can accuse this film of having the wrong intentions, it becomes so overheated in its depiction and so didactic in its approach that it becomes a textbook example of cinema where less could have been more. Perhaps less hand-wringing and more tonal balance would have made this a more potent film. But subtlety is not the word here. This is not to say that all was lost. The film goes on to have quite a heartfelt, anguished conclusion and offers a cautionary word that the law and not reason is sometimes the biggest weapon. However, a better work would have left some room for debate instead of trying to pound its audience into submission. Not recommended.

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