Broken and Detroit - Lessons from the screenplay

Broken - agile drama pulling its punches

★★★

Everyone who grew up in Britain will be familiar with the fundamentals of the British soap opera. Eastenders, Coronation Street, Hollyoaks and more, set the scene for dozens of iconic characters through the 80s, 90s and in the 21st century. Broken takes the themes and ideas of these quintessentially British shows, and turns it into a feature length drama that tends to focus on the less dramatic. The movie is about three households who live in close proximity to each other, in a cul-de-sac, and the events that develop across the three families. Their stories are interwoven and part of one 90 minute picture in the shape of Broken.

Broken could be considered a very British Pulp Fiction. It has an interwoven story told from multiple perspectives if in chronological order, with smart and snappy dialogue, and Tim Roth to boot. But other than that, some great performances and memorable 'moments'. There is not much to Broken.

Make no mistake, the novelty of the interwoven story across these three, quite tragically different families lasts the full ninety minutes, and you have great moments of overlap and divergence. The film's real lead is the 11 year old Elouise Lawrence, who put on a break out peformance, if of course she had broken out. She was credited in only one film after Broken, unfortunately, the director's second project, London Town. Despite this she leads the movie like she had been playing a leading lady for years. Her character is nicknamed Skunk, and has a sort of unabashed confidence alongside a very real fear of what is ultimately the real world, rather than the child's world that she is on the edge of. As the movie progresses we see Skunk's coming-of-age journey begin to tear her apart. Alongside Lawrence is the always reliable Tim Roth, as well as the interjection of elegance that is Cillian Murphy. Each play characters in one of thee troubles households, and their frosty dynamic elevates the film often.

It elevates the film because it was so simple. It wasn't dramatic and it wasn't over the top, and it certainly wasn't Eastenders. Rather it was just two blokes who weren't quite sure of one another, until, they do become sure of one another. Despite this coming-of-age story with Skunk and interesting character dynamics in one of the households, the film uses melodrama as a crutch. There are moments when you think that you are watching a bog-standard British soap opera with some better writing and acting, but no, instead you are watching a feature length one that is especially harrowing. But it's harrowing only in the moment of harrow. There were far too many completely unearned payoffs and totally unearned redemption that just served the plot. For no reason. And thinking back it stinks of bad bad writing. A ninety minute picture could well have been longer, rather than the half baked version of the film that we got.

I'm fine with melodrama, many times in Broken it is actually used well and effectively. But the plot devices disguised as character development which make no sense in the grand scheme of things are an absolute slap in the face to the audience. In the end Broken will go down as another British indie film that should have been better, rather than the horrific family drama that it purports to be.

Detroit - horrific drama delivered brutally

Focusing on the events that took place in the Algiers Motel during the Detroit riots in 1967, Katherine Bigelow and Mark Boal (direction and writing respectively for both Hurt Locker and Zero Dark Thirty) craft an incredibly intense and horrific cinematic experience. We begin following different people in the city of Detroit, Michigan once the riots begin, and their stories all convene in the Algiers Motel, where Detroit Police, Michigan State Police and the National Guard suspect one of a handful of snipers still active in the city is camped.

The film devotes its first act to establishing and bringing together the key players in the showdown at the Algiers. There’s John Boyega as Dismukes – a well-intentioned security guard who acts as the go-between for the authorities and the civilians. Will Poulter as Officer Krauss, a deeply hateful police officer living behind a thin veil of innocence, and Algee Smith as Larry Reid, a hopeful singer. Both Poulter and Smith are phenomenal. Poulter so fantastically embodies the hatred and racism running through the veins of Krauss, but maintains the deliberate and obvious façade of innocence that exists in the institutional racism of the police force, particularly in 1967 but remains today. In this Poulter expertly portrays Krauss as what he is meant to be - Fundamentally evil, yet with enough self-importance and belief that he is doing the right thing, despite being self-aware enough to recognise the monster he is. Poulter is simply fantastic, and I wouldn’t be surprised if he gets a Supporting Actor nomination. The same is true of Algee Smith. Larry Reid is a beautifully characterised and developed person – representing all the hope and style, but also the struggle coursing through black America after the Second World War. And Algee shows just how much an actor can bring to a role, doing a fantastic job at filling this complex and changing character.

Detroit creates a real sense of horror through the second act, once the principal characters are gathered in the Algiers. In fact our frame of reference becomes smaller and smaller as the hotel is raided. We go from the whole hotel being under siege to Krauss and co holding the guests hostage in just a single hallway. In this second act the tone of the film switches to being one of full-on horror. We watch on knowing there’s nothing we can do, and we see every slim chance at hope for the hostages slipping away. This claustrophobic setting and continual reminder that these people are completely at the mercy of the Detroit PD drives home the horror of the second act, and plays on our natural human fears.

The film is properly visceral, from beginning to end, exploring this key theme of justice. Although this is somewhat paused for the centre-piece of the movie, this exploration of justice is maintained from the beginning, and through to the very end of the film. From the inciting moments of the riot, you as the audience are forced to question everything you see on screen. Who is in the right here? Is this action just? But as you progress further and further into the film the sides become far less blurred. This continues through the movie as you dive deeper and deeper into events that fly in the face of any kind of justice, all the way to the ending.

Of course Detroit is particularly timely considering the alarmingly high proportions of black people killed in the line of duty in the USA, and will serve as a reminder that racism was a major factor in police work much further back than the 21^st century. Detroit also takes an interesting perspective on the ‘bad apples’ argument. Racist police officers are sometimes accused of being bad apples in a bunch. In Detroit this certainly seems to be the case, where Krauss and Flynn (Ben O’Toole) appear to be the only officers in the film who are actively and aggressively racist, as well as to some extent Demens (the superb Jack Reynor). Yet the state police and National Guardsman are bystanders to the police brutality. The Detroit PD are facilitated in their brutality by those around them, showing that even if there are only a few bad apples, plenty could and should be done to stop them.

The film is certainly a unique experience. Somewhere between a drama and a straight up horror film, Detroit paints a terrifying picture of police brutality and the course of justice. It’s not something I’d watch often, but perhaps every once in a while. Although it is maybe a little too long, Detroit is a haunting movie that carries its very heavy themes and action with superb performances – Poulter and Smith in particular.