Detroit review: Kathryn Bigelow's race riots drama is powerful, but ultimately flawed

Detroit opens with an animated overview of US race relations, giving essential social and political backstory that leads directly into the powerful events it portrays. The sequence is beautifully constructed, but contains an error – a rogue apostrophe that turns '60s into 60's.

It's a nitpick flaw, but a telling one – this is a film with a dedication to realism so complete it includes elements that technically constitute bad filmmaking. Rushed framing of shots, blurry close-ups, and underexposed wides pepper the film, all in the service of documentary-style naturalism.

Only one problem: the performances feel so theatrical the naturalistic elements don't gel, meaning the cinematography frequently feels like a mistake rather than a choice, much like that unfortunate apostrophe.

It's a shame. The core story is so important, and so impossibly powerful, it deserved to be expressed with a clarity that Detroit simply doesn't deliver.

The first act (chaotically) tracks the beginning of the Detroit riots of July 1967, before zeroing in on the participants of the infamous Algiers Motel incident, in which a riot task force composed of the Detroit Police Department, the Michigan State Police, the Michigan Army National Guard and a private security guard, held 12 citizens hostage in the name of the law.

The hostages – comprised of ten black men and two white women – suffered brutal beatings, abuse and worse, and the event became a symbol of the times.

The Algiers Motel sequence is, unsurprisingly, the stand-out. It's edgy, tension-filled and constantly uncomfortable, with excellent performances from the key participants. That said, there is a clear talent divide between the prisoners and the police.

Of the latter camp, only main cop Will Poulter (Krauss) truly impresses – bug-eyed with rage, but with enough layering to stop him from turning into a cartoon. The other lead cops aren't so lucky, with Ben O'Toole (Flynn) and Jack Reynor (Demens) edging into parodies of their respective 'sweaty pervert' and 'dumb henchman' tropes.

Thank goodness, then, for Alegee Smith (Larry), Jacob Latimore (Fred), Kaitlyn Dever (Karen) and Anthony Mackie (Greene), whose varied and character-based reactions add significantly to the harrowing atmosphere, creating an environment that's as overwhelming and oppressive as Christopher Nolan's Dunkirk.

But even this tension is let down by compromise. There's a thread of #notallwhitemen that runs through Detroit, with one particularly cringeworthy white cop stumbling across a black victim and saying 'Who would do this to someone?' (in a riot environment where pretty much everyone would do that to someone), before carrying the man to his car. He even calls him "brother" to labour the point.

It's a moment that smacks of studio compromise, a note to not alienate a substantial section of the audience, via the medium of random white dudes who occasionally tell off the racists. These elements are distracting, and there's no getting away from it – this is a film that would have had more impact if it had the courage of its convictions.

There are moments of hopelessness that should be all-encompassing (a child mistaken for a sniper here, an innocent man whose shaking hands grip the bars of his cell there), but they're too brief to have full impact. It doesn't help that Detroit often feels like four films in one – the riots, the Motel, the trial, the aftermath – which adds to the lack of focus.

Still, this is a movie that demands to be seen, both because it marks the 50th anniversary of the event itself, and because it's still fiercely relevant. In an age of #blacklivesmatter, race relations haven't come much further since the events of Detroit – young black men are still being murdered by angry white cops.

But, while we're glad Detroit exists, it's not a film we'll be in a rush to revisit and not just because of the moments that succeed in portraying a tragic event with admirable intensity. It's also because the whole thing's so frustratingly delivered.

These are events we should have been forced to stare directly at, without flinching, but Bigelow's film gives us too many opportunities to look away.

Director: Kathryn Bigelow; Screenplay: Mark Boal; Starring: Alegee Smith, Will Poulter, Jacob Latimore, Kaitlyn Dever, Anthony Mackie, Ben O'Toole, Jack Reynor; Running time: 143 minutes; Certificate: 15

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Sam Ashurst

Freelancer writer

Sam is an entertainment writer with NCTJ accreditation and a twenty-year career as a film journalist. 

Starting out as a staff writer at Total Film, moving up to Deputy Online Editor, Sam was responsible for Total Film’s YouTube channel, where he revolutionised the magazine’s approach to video junkets, creating influential formats that spread to other outlets. 

He’s interviewed a wide range of film icons, including directors such as David Lynch, Quentin Tarantino, Paul Thomas Anderson, Sofia Coppola, Ridley Scott, Michael Bay and Sam Raimi, as well as actors such as Meryl Streep, Nic Cage, Brad Pitt, George Clooney, Anne Hathaway, Margot Robbie, Natalie Portman, Kermit the Frog, all of the Avengers and many more. 

Sam has also interviewed several comic creators, including Stan Lee, Alan Moore, Grant Morrison, and he has a zombie cameo in The Walking Dead comic.
In 2014, Sam went freelance, working directly for film studios including Warner Brothers, 20th Century Fox and Disney, as well as covering red carpet events for film marketing company PMA Productions. 

Sam is the co-host, producer and editor of the Arrow Video podcast, which has seen year-on-year growth since its creation in 2017, gaining over half a million listens in that time. 

His byline has appeared in outlets such as Yahoo, MTV, Dazed, Esquire, Harper’s Bazaar, Cosmopolitan, Elle, and Good Housekeeping among others. 

In 2012, Sam made it to the final of the Leicester Square Theatre New Comedian of the Year competition, and went on to become a filmmaker himself, directing three features that have all played major festivals, and secured distribution – starring in two of them. 

Jim Carrey once mistook Sam for Johnny Cash, and John Carpenter told him to ‘Keep up the good work.’ He promises to try his best. 

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