Kathryn Bigelow is, without reservation, one of the very finest filmmakers we have here in the western world and - never one to shy away from difficult subject - the Hurt Locker director is looking deep into the heart of American racial politics and violence with the upcoming Detroit.
Set in the midst of the riots that rocked Detroit in the summer of 1967, John Boyega and Will Poulter are the most recognizable faces in what looks to be a sprawling - and impressive - cast here. In terms of approach I am very much reminded of The Hurt Locker - of course - and films such as Yann Demange's '71, a film that - like this one - tackled a dark piece of history and embraced large scale action sequences and technical wizardry to give the story the appropriate scale without ever become beholden to that action or wizardry, instead keeping the focus purely on the human drama.
Will this provoke controversy? Of course it will, and I very much do not recommend reading the comments thread on the trailer post over at YouTube if you want to preserve any sort of optimism for the general state of humanity. It also looks very, very good and completely up to the challenge of the controversy it will stir up. Check it out below.