DETROIT
Cert 15 Running time 143 minutes
Full of fear, panic and prejudice, two British actors excel as Americans caught up in the devastating Detroit race riots of July 1967.
The Force Awakens star John Boyega is a security guard who acts as our witness to events, while Will Poulter is a racist trigger-happy cop leading the search of a motel for a sniper.
To a soundtrack of sirens and soul tunes, the headbanging brutality is punctuated by photos from the real events.
Kathryn Bigelow is the first and only woman to win the best director Oscar for her Iraq war bomb disposal drama The Hurt Locker in 2009. She was nominated for the best film award in 2012 for her Osama bin Laden film, Zero Dark Thirty, and Detroit will certainly add to her list of nominations.
Once again she casts a critical eye on the machismo of a militarised environment and uses her particular brand of rapid editing and hand-held camerawork to generate tension.