Detroit is a 2017 drama/history film directed by Kathryn Bigelow. The film stars John Boyega, Will Poulter, Algee Smith, Jason Mitchell, John Krasinski and Anthony Mackie, and follows three young African American men who were murdered at the Algiers Motel amidst the chaos of the Detroit Rebellion back in July of 1967.
Well that was another hard film to watch. Although this was a horrifying film to watch, it provided another great insight as to what might have happened back in that small motel in Detroit. Although this film does some things that left me in shock, there were some moments where the film plucked me out of my immersion and left me bored in my seat. This movie was by far just as emotional as Patriots Day, and left me wanting more information as to what took place after the film. Sadly the film didn’t provide that closure, and had me asking more questions of validity than a reasonable epilogue.
Although I had quite a few issues with this film, I ended up really enjoying the acting presented in this movie. Will Poulter did a fantastic job as the antagonist, and provided a truly horrifying experience throughout the film. There wasn’t a moment in the entire movie that I didn’t want to punch him in the face and tell him to F off. Another great performance came out of Algee Smith as he did a phenomenal job as our main protagonist, as well as Jacob Latimore whose character portrayed the audience’s role perfectly. Although I’m usually a huge John Boyega fan, just like in The Circle, Boyega didn’t play that large of a part. During the entire motel scene, he remains silent and doesn’t say much. It’s almost as if Hollywood just doesn’t know how to use him. He’s a great actor! Let him act!
Another great piece to this film was its writing and story. Although the film is a dramatised version of what really happened (since we have no way of knowing what actually happened word for word), the film did a really good job a portraying what might have happened if a film crew was really there filming the events that took place that night. The dialog was well written, and the characters were extremely fleshed out. Although I have to question how much of this is actually true, I will say that I believe this is a pretty good representation of what possibly happened on that infamous night.
Although I had a lot to praise when it came to acting and storytelling, this film did have some major let downs as well. For starters, the movie was horribly paced, and sadly that is a reoccurring trait of Bigelow’s work. One of the main issues with Zero Dark Thirty was that all of the action took place in the last 30 minutes of the film. Sadly Detroit follows in the same flaws as her previous film as the main events takes place in the middle of the film preceded by pointless exposition, and succeeded by a finale that leaves the audience wanting more. The even dumber part of this film is the fact that the movie has almost nothing to do with the actual riots. As stated by Jeremy Jahns, “..Probably should have been called Algiers, or Algiers Motel.” This movie also puts in this really odd expositional opener which didn’t seem tonally right, and I hate to say this but.. it was kinda dumb. I felt like the movie should have just thrown us into the film, and not shown that weird opening dialog.. drawing.. thing of an opener.
Although this was a great film with some minor flaws in its pacing and exposition, it still provided some incredibly tense moments and some great acting. There are of course some times where you begin to ask yourself how much is fiction and if that could truly happen, but then again this was a completely different world that these people lived in 50 years ago. In the end I decided to give Detroit a “Good” on theVade Review Bar. Although this is a story that everyone should know and remember, it’s a story that only takes a half hour to tell, which is a little unworthy of the big screen.
