True tale pulls no punches

that he is a top young talent with skills beyond his years as private security guard Melvin, and part-time Avenger Anthony Mackie (Greene) shows he doesn’t need a pair of mechanical wings to soar.

Bigelow has previous for coaxing awardsbaiting performances from her actors and there’s no weak link among her latest eyecatching ensemble.

While some characters don’t get a lot of screen time, they still make an impression and add something to the hell-on-earth environment Bigelow’s tight camera work shoves right into our faces.

Lighting is dim, sweat runs from foreheads and dust barely has any time to settle; make no mistake, we are taken right into the epicentre of the shocking Motel incident and its consequences here.

At times it’s very disorientating, and you may need to have a lie-down with a wet towel on your head afterwards.

What lets the film down, though – and prevents it from instant classic status – is the rushed handling of the closing court case scenes.

It’s almost as if Bigelow and Boal put everything into filming and writing the conflict and its contributors’ actions and had nothing left when it came to dealing with the aftermath.

Detroit isn’t an easy watch overall, but nor should it be.

And in Bigelow it finds the perfect director to bring its harrowing subject matter into the light for mass audience consumption.