Kathryn Bigelow’s ‘Detroit’ Is An Uneven, But Powerful Docudrama [Review]

With both “The Hurt Locker” and “Zero Dark Thirty,” director Kathryn Bigelow and screenwriter Mark Boal have perfected stories about career-driven, obsessive protagonists who, after finding themselves out of their field or completing their decade-long task, are left with nothing but the feeling of “now what?” That same feeling permeates “Detroit,” albeit in a much different — and sadder — way. A retelling of the Algiers Motel incident during the 1967 Detroit Riot, Bigelow creates an immersive, if uneven, depiction of the horrors that transpired that evening, and that feeling of “now what?” that is left after such a devastating event.

The film starts with the onset of the riots when the Detroit Police raid a speakeasy that is hosting a larger-than-expected party for a returning war veteran. On the third day of the riots, Officers Krauss (Will Poulter), Demens (Jack Reynor), and Flynn (Ben O’Toole) shoot an unarmed man running with stolen groceries. Despite being investigated for murder, Krauss is sent back into the field. Larry Reed (Algee Smith), an up-and-coming Motown singer, is about to take the stage with his band when they are told that everyone is to leave the venue and go back to their homes.

Larry and Fred (Jacob Latimore) head to the Algiers Motel and end up talking with two white girls, Julie (Hannah Murray) and Karen (Kaitlyn Dever), before going back to their room. Across the street, Dismukes (John Boyega), a security guard at a grocery store, makes peace with national guard soldiers by offering them some coffee. Back at the motel, Carl (Jason Mitchell) gives a demonstration amongst their friends what the black experience is like dealing with the police, using a starting gun that fires blanks as an example. To mess with the police, Carl fires a few blanks out the window. Mistaking it for real gunfire, the national guard soldiers, Dismukes, as well as officers Krauss, Demens, and Flynn head to the motel. There, the three officers terrorize the tenants with verbal and physical abuse, and in three cases, murder.

From a storytelling perspective, “Detroit” doesn’t go much deeper than the Wikipedia description of the events. At the start, it feels like it’s setting up a sprawling, multi-character crime story not unlike “Traffic,” but instead builds to a 45-minute chamber piece, followed by a courtroom drama. While all is necessary to the overall arc of the film, the cramming of events into the 143 minute runtime does a disservice to the characters. Despite very strong performances from Smith, Boyega, Mitchell, and Anthony Mackie (in a brief role), it never feels like they are given truly great material to delve into. Boyega’s Dismukes has an interesting conflict within him as a character, trying to extend the olive branch to the oppressors while using what little power he has in his security uniform to help other black youth (one teen refers to him as an “Uncle Tom”), but again, due to the large ensemble, he doesn’t get as much realization as he should.

Despite all of this, what the film lacks in characterization and depth, it makes up for with intensity and timeliness. Bigelow and DP Barry Ackroyd go for the shaky cam, Greengrassian docudrama, which can sometimes be a nuisance but is very effective in this case. Whatever camera they shot this with, they were able to match the grain and the color to some of the stock footage used in the film to create a seamless, truly transportive experience. The period details feel authentic and lived-in as opposed to stuffy and manufactured. The film’s biggest strength is also the hardest to stomach, which is the actual Algiers Motel sequence. It’s powerful and deeply upsetting, and all the more upsetting that it still feels ripped from today’s headlines, despite being the 50 year anniversary of this tragedy.

In a time when it feels like basic civil rights are under attack by the day, movies like “Detroit” feel more vital and necessary than ever. And unlike current-era Oliver Stone, Bigelow does not use the film as a mouthpiece for her own political agenda. Like good journalism, Bigelow and Boal did their research and present the facts, and heighten what needed to be heightened because these kinds of films have to operate as a movie, first and foremost. While “Detroit” may try and cover too much ground, thus occasionally stumbling on its ambition, the sheer visceral power of Bigelow’s direction is worth championing. And upon leaving the theater, snapping back to a reality that isn’t that distant from the past depicted in this film, Bigelow once again leaves us with that feeling of “now what?” [B-]