STRAIGHT OUTTA OAKLAND
Movie Review – Blindspotting
Review by Johnny De Jesus
I’m continuing my look at new films coming outta Oakland, and next up is Blindspotting. The story follows two friends: Collin, who is on his last three days of probation, and Miles, who is capable of causing trouble that could extend that probation. The film is a much more realistic version of Oakland compared to the one shown in Sorry to Bother You.
We open with a split screen showing two sides of Oakland, a gentrified and a real side, a compare and contrast that will affect the characters throughout the film. After an introduction of the characters, Collin is witness to the shooting of a black man by a white police officer, the incident puts him in an almost PTSD state throughout the rest of the film, and while that’s very understandable, I never felt the filmmakers successfully got that point across. Either from overused clichés or stylistic choices, it just didn’t work for me. Collin is played by Daveed Diggs (from Broadway’s Hamilton, which no-doubt launched him into this and other high-profile movie and TV roles), he comes off as very likable and someone you could easily see being friends with and because of this for most of the movie you kinda question, how could such a nice guy be on probation? Miles, played by Rafael Casal, is almost the opposite of Collin: he’s for the most part nice but very temperamental and seems like he could go from being in a good mood to ready to beat someone up in a heartbeat. Both actors did a great job with their roles and both actors also wrote the script. I think they succeeded at showing the characters’ intentions and differences.
For example, Collin has real life fears, such as getting arrested again and put back in jail or even getting killed by the police. Miles fears his neighbor will be overrun by hipsters or someone will see him as not from the “real” Oakland. The female characters could’ve been a little bit better, all the actresses did a fine job with what they had but some felt like they could’ve used some more backstory or like they were just put in the film to pad the story a little more. Ethan Embry only has so much screen time to give some depth to his character and even less lines. Oakland also felt like a complex character filled with lots of change and dangers that could come out of nowhere but all the sides got fair share of screen time for sure.
There is a good balance of fun and drama throughout, never switching tones too hastily, it reminded me a little of Do the Right Thing, both films pull that off really well. We see Miles as a funny salesman talking a mile a minute and other times he’s a powder keg ready to burst. At times, though, the film goes into a spoken poetry-like mode that I could never get into. To me, it felt like moments better suited for a stage play or something like Across the Universe. The filmmakers use what might be considered gimmicks a few times – there is a great segment that involves the retelling of a significant event that I felt worked really well. Without really giving anything away, it basically gave the perspective of an important event but seen through someone else’s point of view, which was almost the opposite of how the character felt through the original experience and told in a very funny way.
I’m not sure how I feel about the ending; I don’t think I really cared for it, at least in the way it was executed. I know the film was building to that moment so it was inevitable to happen but I wish it was done another way. I like that it will fuel discussions and people will have various opinions about it. Overall, you should watch Blindspotting. It is a film that should be watched, because it will keep you thinking and talking and that’s always a good thing (even if you don’t like it!). I feel like I am being nitpicky with this film, and I’m not saying that it’s a bad film at all because it’s not, I just wish certain things were either done differently or better. Either go all the way with spoken poetry and performance-like set pieces or just do the same story without all of that. I appreciate the chances that were taken on this, even if they all didn’t work for me, I look forward to what the filmmakers do next.
Directed by: Carlos López Estrada
Release Date: July 27, 2018
Run Time: 135 Minutes
Rated: R
Country: USA
Distributor: Lionsgate
