Blindspotting

It's rare for a Broadway show to catapult its cast to stardom. But that's precisely the case for Hamilton which turned its creator and many of its stars into household names including the quick lipped Daveed Diggs. So what's next? Well for starters this film which Diggs co-wrote and stars in.

Diggs stars as Collin a convicted felon on the final days of his parole. But as Collin's freedom draws nearer, his past, friends, and the world around him, threaten to land him back in jail or worse.

Blindspotting shouldn't work as well as it does. It's handling a ton of heavy issues including race, getrification, police brutality, toxic masculinity, and the criminal justice system, which still cracking enough jokes to prevent us from wallowing. Here's my personal highlights.

Visual Flair

For the most part, Blindspotting is a grounded "day in the life" movie about Collin's day to day activities and his world. But that all changes when Collin sees a black man shot in the back by a police officer. As terrifying as what he saw is, what makes it worse is Collin feels forced to ignore (his presence would implicate him in a parole violation).

As a result, Collin begins to see hallucinations ranging from an image of the victim, detailed musical dream sequences, or haunting freakouts in a graveyard. It's an excellent audiovisual representation of the weight Collin and so many like him carry.

There's some other showy elements, but I'll let you experience those for yourself.

Timely Reveals

One thing Blindspotting does so well is hint at shared history and its eventual reveals, without being heavy handed. Case in point, Collin's felony conviction remains a mystery for most of the movie, but we understand what it meant for his relationships. It changed his ex-girlfriends view of him and there's underlying tension with his best friend. Collin is a little too irritated with him doing day to day stupid stuff. Diggs' performance and the camera tell us there's something left unsaid. When it all comes out, it feels like the puzzle pieces have slipped into place.

Examines Big Themes Through Individual Experience

As I indicated early, Blindspotting is tackling a lot of interconnected ideas through its main characters.

For Collin we're looking at race, criminal justice, and police brutality. Contrary to what you might think, Collin is not a reformed gang-banger or dealer. He's a guy that made one big mistake and he's still paying for it. And everything about his day to day experience reminds him. His parole is restrictive, his friends and family look at him differently, and he's scared to death of any police interaction. At this point, he's just trying to survive and change for the better. But it is clearly weighing on him.

On the other hand we have Miles, a white man who hasn't internalized the lessons Collin has. He's reckless, complains about gentrification, and is constantly bending the rules. But he doesn't seem to understand why this works for him or how his and Collin's experiences differ. "Things have gone fine for me so far, why change?" is his attitude. It's a perfect counterpoint to Collin's justifiably restricted life/behavior.

Verdict: Timely and Affecting

Blindspotting is a great debut feature from Carlos López Estrada and hopefully and sign of things to come from Daveed Diggs and Rafael Casal. I highly recommend this one. 8/10