Blindspotting, one of the mid-summer hidden gems of a promising 2018, is an extremely ambitious movie from two unknown actors who will very likely be household names in the future. It’s certainly a breakout for the film’s stars Daveed Diggs (who won a Tony for his role in Hamilton) and newcomer Rafael Casal, who also wrote the film. Adding to the virginity of this experience was first-time director Carlos Lopez Estrada. This movie has been a hit with critics and audiences alike (93% and 86% on Rotten Tomatoes). It is a good movie that teeters on the verge of being great. However, it feels like a few different movies weaved into one. Worse, it goes back and forth between these different styles and intents and ultimately leaves us confused as its two lead characters, but in completely different ways. I could empathize with their situation and their confusion. What was hard to comprehend was the character’s rapidly changing thoughts, feelings, and actions. Sure, people can act differently in particular situations, but we had each of these two characters go through the complete gamut in a four period of four days. Ultimately, it left me with many questions to ponder. I also felt like I was watching a series of one-act plays rather than one cohesive movie.
Blindspotting revolves around the lives of best friends Collin (Diggs) and Miles (Casal) over a four-day period. Our lead is Collin. He is in every scene of the movie, but he’s not always the focal point of those scenes. Often his purpose is to serve as a member of the audience, just like us. By that, I mean he’s in the room. At the same time, Miles takes center stage, whether it be through the interactions of the relationship with his wife Ashley (Jasmine Cephas Jones) and preschool son Sean, the pawning of used hair curlers for prices that are probably ten times what they are worth or seeing his anger manifest itself in fistfights over issues that have no business being argued over. Miles is a perfect foil for Collin. I’ll mention this early in my review…While I didn’t think this movie was as effective as many others thought it was, I’ll go on record as saying that Collin is the most likable character on film in the first half of 2018. And what makes this even more ironic is that we are talking about a character who we learn is a convicted felon in this film’s first scene. What’s cool when watching actors you’ve never seen before is that you are usually going to be impressed (or at least surprised)…you don’t have any preconceived notions of what these actors are capable of. When we see Tom Cruise on the big screen, we know we are basically seeing the same character, or at least a small variation of it, more times than not. This used not to be the case but has been so for the last decade. They are fresh in every sense of the word. Both leads are likable, as are both men’s love interests. Miles is a bit harder to like because of his abrasiveness, how hard he pursues trying to earn the street credibility he already has, his carelessness, and his tendency to overreact. But even at his worse, he’s still a character you cheer for even if you find him incredibly annoying because his heart is in the right place. But his character’s purpose is to compliment Collin, the real hero of our story.
When we meet Collin, we know that he has just served a two-year term. We don’t know what until halfway through the movie, but we know he’s a convicted felon. As part of his one-year parole, his required to live in a halfway house, be home by 11 p.m. each night, not leave a defined radius for any reason, hold a steady job, and have no altercations with law enforcement during that time. When asked if he understands the terms of his parole, a sullen Collin grunts a “yeah.” The next scene occurs 11 months and 27 days later (or better, three days before his parole ends). Though we don’t see it, Collin has been on the straight and narrow. Even though we only saw him for about 30 seconds in the film’s opening scene, his demeanor nearly a year later is completely different. He’s fulfilled all of the terms of his parole. He’s a light-hearted, take things as they go, joking kind of guy. This is when we meet Miles as well…in the middle of a gun purchasing transaction. Right away, we see how poor of a decision-maker that Miles can be…knowing that his best friend is three days from parole yet putting him in a position where he can get sent back to prison for a long time if an officer happens to drive by and peer in the front seat window.
There are many racial overtures in this movie, and most of them I don’t feel very comfortable talking about. I don’t know what it’s like to be a young black man in Oakland, CA, in the year 2018, so I’m not going to pretend like I know what it’s like. But Blindspotting lets us know right away, though that it is scary. Very early, we see what I thought would be the film’s primary focus, a young black man evading police run right in front of Collin as he is trying to make it back to his residence before curfew. The man is shot by a white police officer (Ethan Embry – First Man, CBS’s Once Upon a Time) officer four times in the back, killing him. Other white police officers are quickly at the scene. Collin is the only witness but is ushered through the red light he had been sitting at and told to go home. Uncertain of what would happen if he didn’t listen to the police, he drives home and misses the nine-minute curfew. The curfew part isn’t a huge thing other than to point out that the halfway house manager takes it as an opportunity to lay into him and tell him that he has neglected his bathroom assignment duties. As an audience, we are like, “Really? It’s nine minutes, and he’s off parole in three days. Cut the man a break.” The rookie presence of this film (both in its script and its directing) is what occurs the next day. Collin wakes up at 6:35 a.m. and performs his daily routine as if nothing has happened. While he was frantic the night before about what he witnessed, it didn’t seem to bother him nearly as much the next day as it should have. He goes for a run, then picks up Miles, and the two go to work. They work as a two-person team for a moving company where Collin’s ex-girlfriend Val (Janina Gavankar – television’s True Blood, television’s Sleepy Hollow) serves as the office manager. Though we learn that she broke up with Collin, he still respects her and stands up for her even when Miles bad mouths her, sort of tongue and cheek to get arouse from their co-workers. But we also learn there is something much deeper for his anger worth her. Best friends since they were kids, the two men have had each other’s backs through thick and thin. When Collin is serving is two years in prison, Miles goes to visit him twice a week each week, driving 45 minutes each way to do so. But is it out of friendship, or is it out of guilt? That’s for the viewer to decide, and it’s another element of this story.
In yet another storyline, we learn of the changing landscape of Oakland and the general upscaling. The local fast food joints are serving vegan burgers unless it is specified that a beef patty is wanted. $10 kale drinks in a bottle are prominently displayed at the street corner convenience stores. Tech giant billionaires are moving into the local communities, the previous black owners being shoved out or moving out independently. Something that wasn’t unintentional was that Collin and Miles are moving people out of their homes in each of their jobs, as well as seeing white homeowners telling the two men to “gut the joint,” which involves junking photo albums and other memorabilia of the black people who used to live there.
We also meet Collin’s mother, and I’m really not sure what her point was. She’s only in it for one scene, and I think it’s just to infuse even more racial expressions. His mom is either married or seriously dating an Asian man. He and Collin have a good relationship (we see them hug and chat casually). The man has an elementary school-aged son, and we learn that they have just moved into Collin’s mother’s home, even though he planned to move home when his parole ends. Again, there’s not a whole lot to this scene, and I’m really not sure why it wasn’t left on the editing room floor.
The problem with this movie is not the acting. Diggs is absolutely fantastic and is a character that you root for, even as a convicted felon. One of his traits is his ability to impromptu rap about anything. It’s a reoccurring part of his character, and it worked. And Casal reminds you of a young Shae Whigham. Both men and Estrada have a done to say, but they don’t have the experience or the expertise to structure it into a coherent form. As mentioned, it’s almost like a series of one-act plays that you have to go into appreciating the performance without needing to concern yourself with the build-up or the, “Does this actually make sense at this point in the movie? Does it flow?” Because the answer to those two questions is, “No, it does not.” So, for me, the movie ultimately fails. I could admire what it was trying to do more than appreciate what it did do. I don’t know if the film’s climax was what you expected it to be, but we were getting close to the end, and there was no conclusion to one of the film’s key stories. Does it work? Not really for me. And the use of the “N” word was overdone for me. I hate hearing that word, and I understand it is used frequently among various groups in various settings, but it is still difficult to hear. Its rampant use is enough to turn some moviegoers off for sure. Sometimes it is used to be comedic and sometimes dramatic, which is not inconsistent with the other elements used in this movie. The shifting from light-hearted tones to more serious ones happen too frequently and are too discordant to take seriously. When we reach a dramatic situation, it becomes difficult to truly take it seriously and take us to that scene as if it were really happening and not just a movie. The criminal justice system, institutionalized racism, guns, police violence, restoration of a city, rules between what a black person can say to a black person, what a black person can say to a white person, and what a white person can say to a black person, anger, parole, multiracial couples…there is a ton going on here. It’s ambitious, and in the hands of a different director, it might have worked. It’s a very watchable film for sure, and you feel sentiment for both Collin and Miles. But Blindspotting is not a movie that is unified enough to truly call good, let alone great.
Plot 7/10
Character Development 8/10
Character Chemistry 8/10
Acting 9/10
Screenplay 7/10
Directing 6/10
Cinematography 8.5/10
Sound 9.5/10
Hook and Reel 8/10
Universal Relevance 10/10
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