Summary
Drama based on a true story, starring John Boyega. During the US summer riots of 1967, a gang of police officers raid Detroit's Algiers Motel and proceed to terrorise its mostly black residents.
Drama based on a true story, starring John Boyega. During the US summer riots of 1967, a gang of police officers raid Detroit's Algiers Motel and proceed to terrorise its mostly black residents.
Real-life racially motivated violence during the Detroit riots of 1967 is dramatised in a film exploring their continuing relevance in the era of "Black Lives Matter". No strangers to controversy in previous collaborations The Hurt Locker and Zero Dark Thirty, director Kathryn Bigelow and screenwriter Mark Boal here take an unconventional approach to storytelling, which starts as a fresco-like overview of a city in turmoil (replete with much vivid archive footage), then homes in on horrifying events at a local motel, where police investigating gunfire leave a trail of broken and bloodied African-American casualties. So brutal, claustrophobic and upsetting is this extended sequence that it pretty much overwhelms the rest of the movie, with Will Poulter's racist white cop wresting centre stage from the key black characters, John Boyega's conciliatory security guard and ambitious soul singer Algee Smith. What does emerge from the expansive, angry, somewhat ragged result is a vital, provocative statement on the oppressive power structures embedded deeply in American society and the long road towards a shared recognition of the need to change.
role | name |
---|---|
Melvin Dismukes | John Boyega |
Krauss | Will Poulter |
Larry Reed | Algee Smith |
Greene | Anthony Mackie |
Attorney Auerbach | John Krasinski |
Carl Cooper | Jason Mitchell |
Fred Temple | Jacob Latimore |
Karen | Kaitlyn Dever |
Julie | Hannah Murray |
Demens | Jack Reynor |
role | name |
---|---|
Director | Kathryn Bigelow |