Review of Blindspotting (2018) by Dana F — 31 Dec 2018

This movie is kind of obscure, but if you have a chance to catch it streaming or at Red Box, you should check it out. It got some good buzz at film festivals earlier this year. The movie is known pretty much only because it was written by and stars Daveed Diggs - who was in Hamilton, and Hamilton is the second coming of Christ (or so I'm told.

.. I wouldn't know since I'm not willing to spend an entire mortgage payment on one ticket to see a damn musical). Anyway, it turns out that this is a really good film; it's thoughtful, well-written, and well-directed, and both simple and profound in its own ways.

The plot follows the protagonist Collin (Diggs), who is finishing up his last days of probation in Oakland. This movie doesn't have a strong narrative; the film is really about exploring societal expectations regarding culture and race than an actual story.

And in that, it absolutely succeeds. This film made me think in a way that films with similar themes have not before... its message is so much more than "racism is bad". The film really goes deep into the challenges that all people (even white people!) face on a daily basis due to others' expectations about them purely based on how they look (not just race, but how they dress, how they talk, etc.

)... and the consequences that those expectations can have, both in the moment and in the long term. The film's great accomplishment is that it never gets preachy, which is nearly impossible to do when you're making a movie about race/cultural expectations.

The film was written by Diggs and his long-time friend from childhood Raphael Casal (who plays Collin's long-time friend from childhood in this film), and you can't help but believe that this film is a true example of "art imitates life", and that it reflects the real experiences they have had growing up together.

If you haven't heard of Diggs, let me tell you that industry-folk absolutely love this dude, but I thought he was just okay in this. His weird rap/beat-poet shtick (seemingly a carry-over from his Hamilton days) only served to pull me out of the story, and I found it more irritating than innovative.

I actually thought Casal, who has never been in any movie ever, was much better and gave a much more convincing performance. At a crisp 90 minutes, the film moves along nicely and says what it needs to say without any of the fluff that is the downfall of so many films.

I did think the ending was a little weak, but within the context of the story, I'd say it still works. It's definitely worth the watch!