Detroit (2017)

I didn't know a great deal about the story going into this, I was aware it was one of the many recent stains in American history where African Americans are brutally treated by authority and justice has failed them. It's odd that as I write that I could be talking about basically any big unjust shooting in the last couple years but this was 50 years ago in 1967 amongst the Detroit Rebellion. The film focuses on police pushing boundaries and interrogating a group of people in Algiers Motel for a confession that ultimately leads to murder. It's based on real people and actual court cases but due to some missing information and of course the fact none of us were actually there, they fabricated some of the story. 

The reason I was so interested in this was to see John Boyega tackle such a heavy story, to see how he took responsibility to play a real person with important themes. I think he was the best thing about the film. He's mainly level headed and calm but doesn't under react. He appears to be exactly as he is, a random honest man caught in a bad situation trying his best to keep people safe, even when he knows things are against him. Saying that I thought there would be more of him, there's an odd character progression with him where his performance peaks in the last moments we see him on screen.

The rest of the cast was okay. It was more of an ensemble piece than I expected. Antagonist 'punchable face' / Will Poulter was okay, he had some genuine moments regards to the character flat out lying to people and he appeared to be a bad liar. What that tells you about the skill of the actor I don't know. But his accent is great and as I've 100% mentioned before I love a British actor smashing American films. He wasn't likable but he wasn't meant to be. Anthony Mackie was great to watch too, it's nice to him in this type of role no matter how small. 

Understandably very little character development as the story takes place over such a short time. And the story in question relies on the lack of information, the whole point is that we don't exactly know. The antagonists rely on assumptions of other characters and creating the characters to be what they needed to fit their own story, their alibi. 

Katherine Bigelow uses similar techniques as she did with Oscar winning The Hurt Locker (2008) filming one scene with multiple cameras in different places. Capturing the same piece from multiple angles, giving the actors the flexibility to move around and not be confined. Which I believe helps let the characters breath a little. She seems to know strengths of war or humanising it, alongside the handheld shots it helped make people appear quite raw. But this was not quite Academy Award winning. The sound did the same, was very real. Some of the characters were in a Motown band and sung at different points of the film. Hearing a sole voice singing with no backing track and no other sound in the scene is quite powerful. The sound makes sure you notice. 

Though it may appear as Oscar bait it's not quite worthy. It was a 15 minutes intro, followed by a 2 hour scene, a 10 minute 'finale' and some classic real life photos with facts written over them. I understand the choice of narrative structure but I think it's difficult. I understand that it's in place not to break things up, it's to make sure you endure the awful interrogation with the characters. But 2 and a half hours is a long time, let alone for such a topic. But even that, I don't think it had the weight to match the duration.

Good yes, but not as timeless as it could have been 6/10

CINEMATES - A