Blindspotting (2018) [Blu-ray]
Comedy | Crime | Drama

Tagline: Change The Way You See.

Collin (Daveed Diggs) must make it through his final three days of probation for a chance at a new beginning. He and his troublemaking childhood best friend, Miles (Rafael Casal), work as movers, and when Collin witnesses a police shooting, the two men's friendship is tested as they grapple with identity and their changed realities in the rapidly-gentrifying neighborhood they grew up in. Longtime friends and collaborators, Daveed Diggs and Rafael Casal co-wrote and star in this timely and wildly entertaining story about friendship and the intersection of race and class set against the backdrop of Oakland. Bursting with energy, style, and humor, and infused with the spirit of rap, hip hop, and spoken word, Blindspotting, boldly directed by Carlos Lopez Estrada in his feature film debut, is a provocative hometown love letter that glistens with humanity.

Storyline: Collin (Daveed Diggs) must make it through his final three days of probation for a chance at a new beginning. He and his troublemaking childhood best friend, Miles (Rafael Casal), work as movers and are forced to watch their old neighborhood become a trendy spot in the rapidly gentrifying Bay Area. When a life-altering event causes Collin to miss his mandatory curfew, the two men struggle to maintain their friendship as the changing social landscape exposes their differences. Explores the intersection of race and class set against the backdrop of Oakland.

Reviewer's Note: Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman, November 16, 2018 Is Oakland, California really that bad? Sure, it has a somewhat less glamorous reputation than its sister city across the bay, San Francisco, but, again — is it really that bad? Blindspotting is now the second film in just the past few weeks that I've reviewed that paints Oakland in a less than favorable light. Sorry to Bother You depicted a downright dystopian Oakland where a black man learns to survive as a telemarketer by using his "white voice", only to undergo a rather startling transformation that is either surrealism or magical realism, depending on your particular bent. That element may have lended a "cartoonish" aspect to the entire film which made some of its more troubling aspects appear what might be termed whimsical. Despite toeing a rather thin line poised between (often dark) comedy and more disturbing drama, Blindspotting is more or less firmly rooted in "reality", which makes some of its depictions of Oakland all the more unsettling. The film initially seems like it's going to be a comedy of errors detailing the efforts of recently paroled Collin Hoskins (Daveed Diggs) to make it through his year of probation without getting sent back to stir. That misdirection is probably aided by a "countdown clock" of sorts that appears on a few occasions detailing how much time is left, though the fact that the first installment of this interstitial supertitle indicates that Collin is in the last three days of his probation may indicate up front that the film actually has other things on its mind. Suffice it to say that while Collin does make it through his probationary period, one incident in particular haunts him going forward, even while his continuing relationship with buddy Miles (Rafael Casal) repeatedly threatens to unravel into sheer chaos.

Both the chaos and the potential problems with making it unscathed through probation are on hand in the very funny segue from Collin's parole board hearing. From showing Collin in shackles in an orange jumpsuit in front of an unseen judge handing down the terms of Collin's probation, the film abruptly switches to a marijuana smoke filled car where Collin is in the back seat, with Miles and another guy in the front. An informational title tells us that there are three days more or less to go until Collin has completed his probationary period, but the smoke filled car soon turns out to be a gun filled car as well and the film goes to almost lunatic excesses to convince the audience that disaster is certainly in the cards for the hapless would be ex-con. Instead, Blindspotting repeatedly plays upon these expectations of Murphy's Law unfolding by first diverting attention and then, in one devastating sequence, subverting all the fear about Collin's future in a really disturbing moment that is unfortunately more "ripped from the headlines" than many folks would want.

With a forewarning that the rest of this paragraph may verge into spoiler territory, the moment that changes everything happens almost randomly (perhaps one thing that makes it so powerful). Collin and Miles work together as movers and as Collin is attempting to get the moving truck back home late one night, he more or less drives into an unfolding scene where a policeman ends up shooting and killing and unarmed black man. It's a riveting sequence, one filled with dread and an understated panic by everyone in it (including the cop), and it immediately punches through what has been a kind of cheekily humorous ambience up to that point. But here's the thing — much as Blindspotting continually leads the audience to expect one thing only to pull a rather brilliant "bait and switch" (in the best possible sense of that duplicitous sounding term), the film also continually ping pongs almost schizophrenically in its tone, veering back and forth from often very trenchant humor to absolutely devastating dramatic moments. The fact that it can so easily traverse these wide emotional changes is a testament to the writing power of stars Casal and Diggs (they provided the screenplay as well), and the firm grasp on the material that Estrada brings to the project.

Another perfect example of this ability to bridge huge chasms in emotional content comes at the climax of the film. A lot of interstitial vignettes have documented Miles' freewheeling tendencies, but he does repeatedly help to keep Collin on track, and that happens again, albeit somewhat chaotically, very late in the story when it turns out a moving job involving the duo is actually for the cop that Collin has witnessed kill the black man. Without getting into spoiler territory, the showdown between Collin and the cop is absolutely gut wrenching on any number of levels, and once again Daveed and Casal's writing acumen really helps to bring out the humanity in all of the characters. But after a sequence which is absolutely drenched in dread and foreboding, the two guys are back in the moving truck, with Miles kind of half joking that pulling a gun on a client isn't the best career move. Even that joking element is combined with some unabashed emotion as Collin attempts to work through everything he's seen and experienced. It's a really remarkable few minutes of writing, directing and performance excellence, and it really augurs the "arrival" (despite previous credits, especially by Daveed) of a trio of very promising big screen talents.

My question about Oakland above isn't purely academic, since my eldest son has recently gotten his first post-college full time job there. Somewhat hilariously, considering how the city is portrayed both in Blindspotting and Sorry to Bother You, my son told me before he even moved there that there was no way he would be living in Oakland, and that despite the added expense San Francisco would be his "room and board" locale. The Oakland Chamber of Commerce may want to rethink its marketing strategies given the one-two punch of these films, but in a way, Blindspotting is actually an ode to two Oaklanders surviving and maybe even prospering together. This is a really fascinating film that runs an extremely wide gamut in the tone department, so viewers are best advised to come prepared for sudden jarring changes in emotional content. Technical merits are solid, and Blindspotting comes Recommended.

[CSW] -2.9- I was mildly disappointed. It starts out with the premise that is shown in the trailer. One of the main characters witnesses a police shooting. But instead of telling that story, it meanders into a tale of two childhood friends and their present day trials and tribulations; and their resentment of gentrification. And ends up covering much of the same ground as Spike Lee's Do the Right Thing. It's artfully done with a lot of powerful symbolism, much like early Spike Lee. They rap and rhyme a lot, with the white character trying to be blacker than black, and the black character having his hands full just dealing with actually being black in this present environment. The term "Blindspotting" is not defined until late in the movie, being akin to profiling or stereotyping. For me the humor was offset by my worry that the main character wouldn't make if off of probation. That he would be permanently locked into a life that he didn't want. It does make you think.
[V4.0-A5.0] MPEG-4 AVC - No D-Box


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