Oakland is a city like no other. Smack dab in the middle of The Bay Area, it grabs from the surrounding cities’ cultures, but emanates an inimitable aura. It is known as “The Town”. No matter how many of UC Berkeley’s students, Silicon Valley’s tech heads, or “The City’s” (San Francisco) businesspeople infiltrate its boundaries, there is a small-town vibe that resonates from those who’ve grown up in its geographical confines. Yet, more outsiders are “BARTing” (Bay Area Rapid Transit is The Bay’s train system) out of and back into Oakland daily, creating interactions and dynamics that were far from believable when the Black Panthers were beginning their movement in The Town’s deepest parts.
Two July releases look to use an Oakland backdrop to highlight the daily changes happening in cities so steeped in a specific history. One delves into what it takes to succeed in order to get out of the “worst” environments. The other looks into the effects on locals when outsiders come into neighborhoods they wouldn’t have dared enter decades ago. Both use comedy to make poignant observations on the intersection of race and class within societal constructs like gentrification and upward mobility.
Trailers for Boots Riley’s Sorry To Bother You have released to fanfare for its wildly imaginative look into the realities of becoming successful. The trailer opens with stars Lakeith Stanfield (Get Out, Atlanta) and Tessa Thompson (Creed, Thor: Ragnarok) living out of a garage in an alternate-reality Oakland. Stanfield plays Cassius Green, a telemarketer guided by his co-worker (Danny Glover) to use the “key” to success in their merciless job: his “white voice”. Cutting from one bizarre scene to the next, insane encounters are weaved in with over-the top characters. From a solemn Steven Yeun (The Walking Dead) expertly flipping signs, to a wickedly enticing Armie Hammer (Call Me By Your Name) offering Cassius $100 million, the characters we meet combined with the familiar absurdity of Cassius’ means to becoming a “power caller” has propelled Sorry To Bother You to becoming one of the most anticipated comedies of the summer.
Not as high on everyone’s radar is Carlos Lopez Estrada’s Blindspotting. Starring co-writers Daveed Diggs (Hamilton) and Rafael Casal, it follows the journey of ex-con Collin (Diggs) trying to navigate the last days of his parole. He must navigate the violently tense racial encounters happening daily in his rapidly gentrifying West Oakland neighborhood, all while his best friend Miles (Casal) continuously puts him in precarious situations. Diggs and Casal spent a decade penning the script to Estrada’s feature directorial debut which is more dramedy than outright comedic turn. The film opened Sundance and SXSW to great praise, with Variety’s chief film critic Peter Debruge raving that “Blindspotting [is] the most exciting cinematic take on contemporary race relations since ‘Do the Right Thing’ nearly 30 years ago”.
Sorry to Bother You, distributed by Annapurna pictures, has a July 6th limited release (July 13th Everywhere). Blindspotting’s wide release is July 20th, courtesy of Lionsgate’s Codeblack Films and Summit Entertainment.