Detroit Review

Here's a super belated review. I meant to get this one out a long time ago, back in early August when it came out. But for whatever reason, I didn't get around to seeing it as early as I wanted to and when I finally did, it was practically gone from theaters, which is really sad. So getting this review out at that point wasn't the highest priority. At this point I'm now reviewing this in hopes that you will rent it and watch it when it comes out on DVD. It's funny because everyone who saw this loved it, but it still didn't make as much money as it deserved. I put all the blame on new distributor Annapurna for making a huge rookie mistake. This should've been the type of movie that they released in a film festival, like TIFF or NYFF, then did a limited release in November and December before finally giving us a wide release on a weekend that made sense, perhaps close to when Oscar nominations come out. Had they done that, I would be confident that this would've gotten loads of Oscar nominations, including best picture, which would've then given it a lot more attention and thus a lot more money. But oh well. Such is life. Perhaps I'm a small part of the problem by not doing my part and getting this review out early. But hey. Here I am making up for my mistake.

Yet another slight problem with this movie is the title. "Detriot" is super vague. I thought about telling my facebook friends that I'm going to Detroit. And I'm sure many of them may have thought that I had found a job in Detroit and decided to move there, because back in August I hadn't quite yet figured out my housing situation. That would've been funny. But it proves a point. Vague title. If you don't look at any of the posters or watch any of the trailers, you'll have no clue as to what this will be about or what genre it is. Maybe that was even a part of the problem when it actually came to theaters. Casual audiences come to the theater and see "Detroit" on the box office ticker, get confused and buy a ticket for something else, like "Spider-Man: Homecoming" or "Dunkirk." So what part of the city of Detroit is this about and in what time period? Well, this has certainly nothing to do with the Detroit Lions of the NFL, even though I'm ironically watching the Lions play right now as I type this review. This movie is about the Detroit riots that happened back in the 1960's. Specifically this is about an isolated incident in the midst of those riots at a place called the Algiers Motel. In fact, if I had a say in things, I would've titled this movie "The Algiers Motel."

I don't want to say too much about what happens once we get into the meat of the conflict here, but since the movie title leaves this super vague and the trailers don't tell you much outside the fact that this is a Detroit riots movie, which is not really what this movie is, allow me to actually set the stage. The main characters of the movie are a couple members of the group The Dramatics, who were a group of black singers trying to make it big in the Motown scene. Right before they are about to perform at a certain event, which could be their huge break, the police cancel the event, and after their bus is attacked by rioters, the group is split up, leaving Larry Reed and Fred Temple to the Algiers Motel, where they rent a room for the night. At one point early in the night, one of the guys in the motel decides to use his cap gun to pretend to shoot at the police outside. Probably not the best move. The police, thinking that they've been shot at by a sniper, raid the motel, lining everyone up at the wall. And it's at this point where most of our movie takes place and concurrently the place where I'm going to stop describing this plot and let you figure out when you go watch this movie, because I had no idea what was going to happen and that makes for the best experience in my opinion.

It's safe to say that life in the 1960's was tough if you were black. Racism was practically at an all-time high and tensions around the country were crazy as America tried to integrate the Civil Rights movement by integrating our country and getting rid of racism, which caused a lot of opposition from opponents of integration. And while we mostly focus on the south when it comes to movies like this, showing other parts of the country during times like this was really interesting to me, especially since Detroit currently is still one of the most violent, crime-ridden cities in the country. I can't imagine what it was to live there as a black person during the 60's. It must've been super rough. Thus as we went through this movie, I became increasingly nervous about the safety of our main characters. They did a great job of setting them up as great people who really did nothing wrong that were caught up in an awful city with awful things happening. I really wanted them to make it out safe and alive, but when the police stormed in, I had no idea if they were. In fact, I was pretty sure that I was in for an unhappy ending, which just ripped my heart to shreds. How is it that such awful things like this event could've actually happened in this country? It's a real shame that racism was once this bad.

Yeah. I'm sure you know where I'm now going to take this review. There are a lot of times with cinema where you watch something and are ashamed that certain events actually happened in this country. I love this country, but I'd be lying if I were to claim there were no dark moments in our history. The Civil Rights movement certainly had a lot of these moments with how blacks were treated and this movie definitely made me sad and ashamed. But then I turn on the news. Yeah, it's still happening. And despite me not liking the August release for this movie, it's really interesting that this came out at almost the exact same time as the events in Charlottesville, Virginia. And it's insane how closely this movie parallels those events. So much that you can say that "Detroit" is probably the most relevant movie out at this point. I mean, you can totally understand why the police reacted the way they did. They heard gunfire and they thought they were being shot at. But in my opinion, despite this proper motivation for raiding the place, they crossed so many lines and it was horrific seeing the events unfold and thus the police were totally in the wrong. Imagine if the president at the time came out and said there was fault on both sides. Catch my vibe?

That's as political as I'll be with this review. But you better believe that I could continue with that and go on a super long rant. But yet this is a movie review, so I'll stick with reviewing the movie instead of going on a political rant. But that had to be said because you have to know why this movie connected with me so much. It's more than just an awful event that happened in the past. It's that and the fact that this parallels what's happening right now and can thus be used to make a statement and stand up for what is right. A lot of credit for this movie has to go to director Kathryn Bigelow for constructing such a masterful film. We can point the finger of blame at the marketing for not giving this movie a shot with the general public, but the movie itself is fantastic. Bigelow is really good at this genre and she's also blown people away with both "The Hurt Locker" and "Zero Dark Thirty," both of which are also based on true stories that are very relevant to today. Both of which also were nominated for best picture, with "The Hurt Locker" winning the award. So yeah, Bigelow knows what she's doing and she does an excellent job of setting up the events in the movie, building the tension and punching you in the chest at the right moments in order to give you the feels.

The other person that has to get a ton of credit for this movie is Will Poulter. He plays the main police officer who is leading this raid and man is he good at being the most despicable human being. I won't say what he does, but he spent the whole movie filling me with unbearable rage. Like, I look at his picture right now and my blood just boils. I have to remind myself that in real life he's probably a really nice kid. But he's certainly really good at playing the annoying pest in the movie, as was also evident with him perfectly portraying Eustace in the third "Chronicles of Narnia" movie. Now Eustace is all grown up and deserves an Oscar nomination due to how successfully evil he was in this movie. Too bad Annapurna dropped the ball big time with this movie, making it so he probably won't get one. But it's deserving. And in fact, a question arose as to who should play the Joker in the upcoming Joker spin-off movie that DC announced that is apparently disconnected with the DCEU as a whole and will not bring back Jared Leto's Joker. I don't get what's happening with DC, but that's a conversation for another day. But if we're going to do that, then Will Poulter deserves to be cast as the Joker, because if he's as evil in that movie as he was in this one, he would make for one dang good Joker.

Again, I apologize for not doing my part by seeing this movie earlier and getting my review out when this movie was still in theaters. But as I have made up for my mistake by finally writing this review, you should also make up for your mistake if you were one who decided to skip this movie. It needs to be seen. It's well directed. It's super intense. It's the most relevant film you'll see all year. The only issue I had with the movie is that it probably should've ended before it actually did. In a super non-spoilerific, vague way, I think after certain things happened, certain other things should've been told by giving us some text to read instead of spending the time to detail it out in the movie. I don't normally say that. In fact, in some instances it's the exact opposite. But after such a crazy, intense ride throughout, it did deflate things a bit. But that's all I have to say negative about this. This deserves to be a best picture nominee. Bigelow deserves a nod for best director. Poulter deserves a best actor nomination. But sadly that may not happen. But regardless of all the politics that may surround the Oscars, this deserves your time and your money. I spent the whole movie on the edge of my seat and given the timing, this movie made a big impact on me. Thus I'm going to give "Detroit" a 9/10.