Blindspotting

Up-and-coming actors and childhood pals Daveed Diggs and Rafael Casal take the Matt Damon / Ben Affleck route to success by writing a terrific, buzz-worthy screenplay for themselves to star in. With lead roles tailored to their individual styles, talents, and screen presences, Blindspotting’s infectious energy invites viewers inside the lives of this charismatic pair. Once happily ensconced, we get to share their perspectives on their hometown of Oakland, California as well as many of the most critical issues American cities currently grapple with.   

Diggs and Casal play childhood friends. Collin (Diggs) is an black convicted felon out on probation trying to keep his head low, and Miles (Casal) is a white rabble-rouser with few worries, even though he’s the father of a young, mixed-race boy in a city where tensions between police and young black men are especially high. Both guys work with Collin’s ex-girlfriend at a moving company, and their job grants them an up-close view of how gentrification is changing the city they love. 

The well-constructed but easygoing narrative enables Diggs and Casal, and first time feature director Carlos López Estrada, to tackle a myriad of issues with humor, poignancy, and astute observation.  Along with urban gentrification and cross-racial friendship, the picture takes on police killings of unarmed black men, the difficulties ex-cons face when reintegrating into society, male/female relationship dynamics, gun violence, white privilege, and the glamorization of thug-life. For the most part, the filmmakers maneuver through their bold tonal shifts with aplomb, effortlessly jumping from hilarious comedy to intense drama. 

As with Good Will Hunting, these young writer/actors lay on the thematic messaging a bit thick via the type of overt monologues that get scripts and actors noticed but rob the final movie of its biggest asset – authenticity. Still, these verbal showcases stay in line with the picture’s well-established internal reality, right up until the climax. The bold but narratively paralyzed culminating scene takes such a drastic turn away from any dramatic plausibility it reduces Blindspotting from one of the year’s best début features to a worthy effort by some very talented newcomers.