By Emilio Frenk.
Director: Kathryn Bigelow
Cast: John Boyega, Anthony Mackie, Will Poulter, Algee Smith, Jacob Latimore, Jason Mitchell, Hannah Murray, Jack Reynor, Kaitlyn Dever, Ben O´Toole and John Krasinski.
Rating: Excellent.
Academy Award Winning Director Kathryn Bigelow and Writer Mark Boal team up for the third time and bring “Detroit” a very intense drama and thriller that once again delivers incredible results.
Based on a true story, the movie takes place in the city of Detroit in the late 60´s during the riots.
In that time a murder of three African American Men takes place in the Algiers Motel. The Police with the abuse of authority and excess of violence will interrogate the suspects of the murder that took place.
This is the story of one of the most brutal events that has taken place in American History and is the story of the victims who suffered police brutality and abuse of power.
One of the things that I really liked of “Detroit” was the fact that it tells the story from multiple points of view and tells different stories of the victims.
There is a tendency that in movies like this one are focused in one character and is from it´s perspective.
Both Kathryn Bigelow and Mark Boal were very smart on telling a story this way and it is a way that has never been seen before.
Kathryn Bigelow´s directing again hit the mark and took the best of her cast, which most of them are unknowns and delivered incredible and convincing performances. Her style is very similar to “The Hurt Locker”, where she won the Academy Award for Best Director back in 2010.
The movie is shot like a documentary and this way of shooting this kind of movies do work at all levels. The way Bigelow captured the intensity of the victims and the police officers during that sequence in the second act of the film in the motel was really deep and Bigelow once again created tension in the movie, specially in that particular sequence.
Bigelow is one of the best directors who know how to create tension between scenes and I was blown away.
Mark Boal´s screenplay of this film was crafted in a brilliant way and you can tell that he put a lot of work and research for this film and the result does pay off.
The performances by the most of the cast, specially from Algee Smith, who plays a singer from a band with huge dreams and aspirations is brilliant and Anthony Mackie´s as well.
The one who did surprise me and I have been very critical towards him is John Boyega, who had his breakthrough role in “Star Wars: The Force Awakens” two years ago playing the main character Finn.
Here he was well directed and gave an incredible performance as Dismukes, another main character of this movie and plays a key role.
In the other hand I believe that the addition of an actor like John Krasinski was not necessary. I think he is a very talented actor but I don´t think he was fit for the role.
Every time I watch a movie from both Kathryn Bigelow and Mark Boal I learn something new and here I went in to the theater with no clue about the Detroit Riots. I knew about it by name but here I do think it gets into a lot of detail and has one of the most intense sequences that I have seen in a second act.
Both filmmakers made another winner again with “Detroit” and I believe that it is a huge contender for next year´s award season.
Like “The Hurt Locker” and “Zero Dark Thirty”, “Detroit” is a movie that will generate a lot of controversy due to the theme of the film and excess violence both physically and verbally that happens in the film.
Be prepared at all levels before watching this film since it contains very intense scenes and most of all be open.
With that being said “Detroit” is one of the year´s best film and I highly recommend it for the directing of Kathryn Bigelow, Mark Boal´s screenplay and performances.