In the last 10 years, Kathryn Bigelow has set a gold standard for us to judge her work by. Sure, her latest, “Detroit,” might not have deserved to belong next to landmarks such as “The Hurt Locker,” and “Zero Dark Thirty,” but taken on its own merits, this was staggering and visceral filmmaking, especially its “piece-de-resistance” which is set in the Algiers Motel and feels like a poetic metaphor for the incalculable years of police brutality towards African-Americans.
“Detroit” really hits its stride during the aforementioned sequence, detailing when three young African-American men were assaulted, and two murdered, by Detroit cops. That’s when Bigelow’s movie is at its most gripping and unsettling. Officer Krauss, the main white cop who orchestrated all of this evil, as played by Will Poulter, is depicted as a man with no moral compass which makes the film’s hard-to-watch brutality sting even harder.
Three months after its release, Bigelow’s film seems to have slowly withered away from the Oscar conversation. Its August release date was a somewhat questionable way to debut a film that felt like Oscar-bait that fit in more with the festival circuit than a random end of summer slot, but that hasn’t stopped Annapurna pictures from pushing the film hard for potential awards consideration. The studio has set an awards-season limited theatrical re-release for December 1st. According to Deadline, “The reissue will encompass 10 cities and 20-25 screens in markets that will include New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Chicago, Palm Springs, Maui and Aspen.” The $16.7 million domestic box-office intake that “Detroit” amassed certainly was a disappointment for Annapurna who had high hopes for the film, both critically and commercially. This seems to be an attempt to widen audience exposure to the film and to take advantage of the current zeitgeist for which “Detroit” does resonate.
With that in mind, a new trailer is here to remind both audiences and awards voters about the potent power of “Detroit.”