Panic in Detroit as race-hate cops run riot
DETROIT (Cert 15; 143mins)
THERE couldn’t be a more timely film than Detroit. Recent weeks in America have shown how deeply the racial divisions are still felt within the country. Detroit is based on true events from 1967 and makes the point that little has really changed. There are times when you can barely watch but equally you can’t look away.
Oscar-winning director Kathryn Bigelow, the maker of The Hurt Locker and Zero Dark Thirty, structures the film in a way that paints the bigger picture before narrowing the focus to one harrowing event.
There’s an edgy, anxious feel to a film in which you can almost sense the storm that is coming. The growing conflict between the black ghettos and Detroit’s white police force eventually spilled over into riots during the summer of 1967.
Looting, lawlessness and fear transformed the city streets into a war zone. Among those who will be caught up in the violence are young black singer Larry (Algee Smith), whose band The Dramatics seems on the brink of hitting the big time. Law-abiding black security guard Melvin (John Boyega) is determined to play the peacekeeper and see everyone safely through the darkest of nights. Trigger-happy white cop Krauss (Will Poulter) seems to have no concept of right and wrong, believing he can bully, intimidate and kill without consequences.
Bigelow begins to ratchet up the tension as she recreates what happened at the Algiers Motel on July 25, 1967. Convinced a sniper is operating from within the motel, Krauss, fellow officers and members of the National Guard head to the building determined to find the guilty party. Anyone who stands in their way is obstructing justice, anyone who cannot answer their questions will pay the ultimate price. Before the night is out, innocent people will lie dead.
Detroit starts to resemble a horror film. The night at the Algiers is an ordeal that allows us to walk in the shoes of the victims and feel what it must be like to be a second-class citizen at the mercy of someone with total power over your life.
Krauss’s actions are appalling and Poulter does little to soften his unrepentant racism. His baby-faced cop looks like a boy scout but acts like a killer, slyly reassuring victims that: “I have nothing against you people.”
Detroit becomes a shocking, sickening drama that makes your blood boil and your flesh crawl. It’s possible to argue that it lacks a little subtlety and could have been even longer to incorporate more aspects of an extraordinary story. Those are valid criticisms but in the end feel irrelevant.
Detroit tells such a powerful, visceral tale that it demands to be seen and discussed.
ROUGH NIGHT (Cert 15; 101mins)
DOES anyone remember the 1980s farce Weekend At Bernie’s? It seems to have been a big source of inspiration for Rough Night, a lacklustre comedy in which a raucous hen party winds up with an inconvenient corpse.
Politician and blushing bride-to-be Jess (Scarlett Johansson) is promised the best weekend of her life when she heads to a hen party in Miami organised by close friend Alice (Jillian Bell).
Everything is going to plan until the accidental death of
stripper Jay (Ryan Cooper) and the moral dilemma of what to do with his body. The talented cast includes Kate McKinnon as wacky Aussie buddy Pippa but like most of them she struggles to raise many laughs from a screenplay that often feels as lifeless as that hapless stripper.
AMERICAN MADE (Cert 15; 115mins)
THE megawatt charisma of Tom Cruise is shining brightly in this irreverent, fast-paced lark of a film that seems to feed off the star’s boundless energy.
The larger-than-life plot from the late 1970s and early 1980s is so consistently unbelievable it can only be true. And it is. Cruise plays Barry Seal, a commercial airline pilot living the most mundane of lives until he is approached by smarmy CIA agent Monty Shafer (Domhnall Gleeson). Is he willing to serve his country with a few covert surveillance missions over Nicaragua. “Is all this legal?” he asks at one point. “If you’re doing it for the good guys,” replies Shafer. The surveillance missions are just the start of an adventure that soon has the indestructible Seal lying to his wife Lucy (Sarah Wright), carrying arms around the world, building a small empire and drug-trafficking in the company of the notorious Pablo Escobar.
Blithe spirit Seal breezes through the most dangerous situations with his gift of the gab and brass neck. An entertaining if glib film, especially if you are a Cruise fan.
IN BED WITH VICTORIA (Cert 15; 96mins)
A LAWYER struggles to regain control of her increasingly chaotic life in this slight, mild-mannered romantic drama from French director Justine Triet.
Virginie Efira stars as Victoria, a lawyer juggling the care of her two children, a busy career and a succession of meaningless one-night stands.
The pressure increases when friend Vincent (Melvil Poupaud) is accused of attempted murder and asks Victoria to defend him.
Meanwhile, her ex-husband David (Laurent Poitrenaux) is making their private life public property in a revealing and potentially libellous blog. It is enough to provoke a meltdown but fortunately former client and reformed drug dealer Sam (Vincent Lacoste) is at hand to soothe her brow, entertain the kids and prove adorably indispensable. Pleasant enough but winds up underwhelming.
BUSHWICK (Cert 15; 94mins)
NEW YORK is a city under siege in this clumsy B-movie thriller. Lucy (Brittany Snow) is taking her boyfriend to meet her family when she finds open warfare on the streets of Brooklyn.
Fleeing snipers’ bullets and grenades, she finds an ally in former marine turned janitor Stupe (Dave Bautista). Their struggle to stay alive and figure out what is happening drives a story that never feels convincing.
Guardians Of The Galaxy’s Bautista is strong but others feel out of their depth. The simplistic screenplay doesn’t help either.
HOTEL SALVATION (Cert PG; 102mins)
AS GENTLE as a summer breeze, this captures a touching bond between father and son. Convinced his time has come, 77-year-old Daya (Lalit Behl) wants to spend his final days on the banks of the Ganges in the holy city of Varanasi.
Son Rajiv (Adil Hussain) reluctantly accompanies him on a final pilgrimage, staying in a ramshackle hotel that is home to people nearing the end of their lives.
This modest, melancholy affair unfolds with wry humour and a warm heart as the demanding father and his resentful son find peace, love and understanding.