“EXCRUTIATINGLY RAW & EMOTIONAL – DETROIT is one film that every adult in this country needs to experience…” – Matinee Chat with Kathy Kaiser
DETROIT – Rated R – 2 hrs. 23 mins.
Starring John Boyega, Will Poulter, Algee Smith, Jacob Latimore, Anthony Mackie, Ben O’Toole, Peyton Alex Smith, Malcolm David Kelly, Kaitlyn Dever, Hannah Murray and John Krasinski
From Director Kathryn Bigelow, who has previously brought to the big screen intense historical dramas before, including THE HURT LOCKER and ZERO DARK THIRTY, comes another painfully real, and very disturbing time in our countries history…this is DETROIT!
The time is July 1967, as Detroit is ablaze with the malice and racism overwhelming this once tranquil city. As riots continue to break out in the streets day after day, it seems that no one is safe from the destruction happening at every turn…right before our eyes…
As the Detroit police, Michigan State Police, and the Michigan National guard are put in place to bring some sense of peace to the streets, rogue police officer Krauss (Will Poulter) has other thoughts on his mind…allowing his own cruelty, hatred and racism to rear its ugly head against the blacks of Detroit…
When singer Larry (Algee Smith) and manager Fred (Jacob Lattimore) find themselves held up at the Algiers Motel, little do they know that the Motel will soon be under attack, after a false report that a sniper resides within its walls. And much to the dismay of all the residents at the Motel on this fateful night, they too will find themselves praying for their lives, at the hands of three individuals who took a vow to “Protect and serve”…not extinguish the innocent lives that they take, all in the name of their own warped sense of justice…
I give DETROIT a rating of MUST SEE ON THE BIG SCREEN: Talk about disturbingly real and emotionally draining, Bigelow has once again brought the frailties of our humanity, to the big screen, with a raw and painful display of a segment within our countries history. Each performance throughout this film is more gut wrenching than the next, as you see the racism and hatred emblazoned in late 60’s Detroit erupt all over the screen. It was truly excruciating and agonizing to watch what happened at the Algiers Motel, as it harkens to the events still happening throughout our nation, some 50 years later, regarding police brutality. Being too young to remember these events first hand, I was glad to have had the opportunity to experience the complexities of the racism that gripped our nations past, throughout each and every frame of DETROIT. I left the theater extremely moved, and with a greater sense of clarity to the struggles experienced by the Black American’s of our past, and with a new resolve to help change the racism that still manifests itself within the cities and streets of our nation today…
Kathy Kaiser
MATINEE CHAT with Kathy Kaiser 