Blindspotting is a movie that focuses on the last three days that Collin is on probation as he tries to transition back into life as a free man in an increasingly gentrified Oakland, California. It stars Daveed Diggs of Blackish and Hamilton fame and Rafael Casal as Collin’s friend, Miles. Diggs and Casal wrote the script over the course of nine years. Diggs and Casal appeared on The Daily Show to promote this movie otherwise I would not have considered watching it based on the description alone. The movie that they described caught my attention, but the actual movie did not.
Diggs and Casal made it seem as if Blindspotting would show that the slightest infractions while on probation could destroy your life, which sounds like a perfect movie to me. I work with a lot of people who are on probation, and I thought that this movie would be a slice of life story that realistically depicted the logistic and financial strain of life with one foot in the real world and the other in a halfway house. For instance, did you know that there are costs to being on probation and living in a halfway house which does not leave a lot of money for anything else, including other, more ordinary legal and financial costs? A real ex con can’t afford a $10 morning routine.
Instead Blindspotting decided to focus on one of the more difficult psychological aspects of life on probation, which could have worked. Technically associating with your friends if they engage in criminal conduct can be a violation of the terms of your release. The overarching question of the movie is should he stay friends with Miles? From the moment that Miles spit his half chewed food on to the floor of a friend’s car, my answer was a firm no. I’m not saying that I don’t get how Collin can be Miles’ friend, especially since the man that we see in the last moments of the movie as they casually hang out at work made me understand why Collin and Miles’ friendship had value when the writers aren’t simply cranking out controversy to make a movie, but for the majority of the movie, he is inconsiderate and thoughtless with the people that he loves. That friendship isn’t worth destroying your life.
Blindspotting did not show Collin and Miles living quotidian lives and being in danger. I’m sorry, but if your friend casually buys guns illegally, don’t hang out with him. I have a friend from work whose son got a ride from a neighbor, and because there was a gun in the car, DCF got involved in her life. The movie that I was promised is not the movie that I got. Most people would have bounced after the first extreme moment, and if they’re sticking around, they have cosigned whatever is happening. I know that I may be speaking from a place of respectability politics and privilege because that is the only world that I know. I’m open to hearing different perspectives and have completely changed my views on the legalization of drugs based on the administration of justice based on race, but this movie did not succeed in empathizing with Collin’s situation with respect to Miles. Also PSA to everyone: DO NOT EVEN TOUCH A GUN UNLESS YOU WANT TO LATER END UP IN AN INVESTIGATION FOR A CRIME CONNECTED TO THAT GUN EVEN IF YOU DID NOTHING WRONG AND WERE SAVING LIVES!!!! This seems like a no brainer to me, and yet throughout the movie, with no gloves, people are handling guns as if they aren’t machines of death.
I understand that there would be no movies or TV shows if characters did not do stupid things, but after a day of moving, how do you have enough energy to hang out with your friends and family after work? You can’t stay in one night and read a book. Hell, Frank Castle’s middle name is trouble, and even he has a personal library. If you are going to go out at night, and your curfew is at 11 p.m., you have a Smart phone! Set up an alarm to go off at 10 p.m. then in fifteen-minute increments after that. I did not mind it the first time and actually thought that powerful moment of being at the wrong place at the wrong time initially worked well, but Collin was getting on my last nerve as he failed to learn from his mistakes and possibly got worse as the movie progressed. Your life is on the line.
Blindspotting lost me fairly early. It wanted to do too much, but failed to sustain the excellent notes throughout the film by overindulging and extending or including some scenes that punctured the realistic undertone of the story. For the sake of clarity, I don’t mind when movies take an unrealistic turn if it highlights the feelings evoked by reality, which is why I think that Sorry to Bother You is the best film of 2018. In contrast, this film embraces reality and is trying to make a love letter to Oakland, tackle dehumanization of feeling as if under siege with the simultaneous incursion of gentrification, but obliterates it by creating characters who then act as if they don’t live in that world and create a needlessly and increasingly stressful Rube Goldbergian plot that plunges into a confrontation, which is part fantasy and part nightmare, but fails to resonate because no one would ever do that and expect zero consequences. I hate when movies such as The Help complain about people being stigmatized unfairly then show them engaging in the conduct that racists imagine that they are doing. If you think that I’m being unfairly harsh, how is George Zimmerman doing? Side note: if I didn’t enjoy this movie, does that mean that I am in the minority, which would not even include Mike Pence, and I would not enjoy Hamilton? Oh dear. My kingdom for closed captioning!
I actually adored the oneiric quality of Blindspotting when the film simply focused on Collin and his trauma. One dream sequence is the perfect visual embodiment of the meaning of extrajudicial. His running routine suddenly becomes a waking nightmare in a scene reminiscent of the final scene in Lars von Trier’s Antichrist, which I’m not recommending, but von Trier is one of the most genuinely disturbing, but great directors of our time so I am awarding high praise to this film for even accidentally referencing his work. The theme of the oak tree echoes the ghost theme thus equating black people and nature as being endanger in a similar way that Get Out paralleled deer with the main character.
Blindspotting reaches the pinnacle when it has its Ant-Man Michael Pena moment. It balances comedy with horror of a more normal variety when you suddenly see the monster in yourself or those that you love that other people see. The movie does an excellent job of shifting perspectives so you can agree with one character at one moment then side with the opposing view in the next. Unfortunately even though I could root for the friends, I did not ultimately like them. I side with Val.
Blindspotting feels like it was equally inspired by Do The Right Thing and School Daze, but ultimately failed because from the beginning, it started at a moment of high tension, which it mostly sustained until the end of the movie instead of being understated with punctuations of tension culminating in a denouement derived from ordinary horror as opposed to film school, theatrical contrivances of conflict that may or may not echo real life, but are still aggravating as people do dumb stuff that lead to stressful scenarios. “You’re picking the wrong fights.” Indeed. Kudos for the multiracial casting.