If you are not from or have not had an extended stay in the Bay, there is a full-on conversation in Blindspotting that you will not be able to follow in any way, shape, or form. No matter how well versed you may be in Ebonics, the specificity in which Yay Area slang is used cannot be matched anywhere in the world. Shoot, even one of the characters in the conversation didn’t know exactly what was said besides the main transaction. Blindspotting is The Town (a.k.a. Oakland). And is the best movie of 2018.
Blindspotting follows Colin (Daveed Diggs) as he navigates his last days of parole while living in a rapidly gentrifying Oakland, maintaining a relationship with his oft-troublemaking best friend Miles (Rafael Casal), and witnessing a life-altering police interaction.
A wise man whose opinions I trust (most of the time) summed up this movie perfectly: It was everything.
First, “it made me angry but not too angry.” Blindspotting tackles gentrification so accurately that you start reminiscing on experiences that made your anger boil until you can’t help but shake your head and let it go. It highlights how transplants can take control of everything that made you fall in love with your city, and push out everything “they” deem unworthy without two thoughts.
Second, “it made me sad but not too sad”. Gentrification systematically pushes those who are no longer “valuable” into situations they can’t control. It brings about a lot of lose-lose situations where one must do what they have to do to survive, creating a painful weight that no one should have to ever bear. How this pain is handled is where Blindspotting excels, and where this summation is most prevalent.
Third, “it made me laugh… a shit ton”. Amongst the foreignness, the pain, and the struggle to survive, the life, laughter, and love that emanates from a city’s locals is what shines through. That shining light is what Blindspotting truly represents. It is a love letter to the joy that is Oakland. More precisely, an examination of where that joy has to come from in order to deal with systemic poverty and injustice.
Diggs and Casal exemplify this joyful resiliency and are profound in their roles. The movie moves with their relationship, fostering such a realistic one that you feel as if you have grown up with them. There is no question that they were Town-born and bred. Diggs embodied the struggle of the inner-city while Casal embodied the survival. Diggs is powerful as Colin, deftly representing the post-traumatic mask many residents must show with a smile on their face and their feet moving forward. Casal is a revelation as Miles. He is the center of every scene, bringing all eyes and ears to him. His ability to charm, talk, and humor his way into and out of any situation shows the ability for residents to make the best out of what they are given. Together, they are the most authentic relationship (with each other and a city) reflected on screen in recent memory.
They symbolize how when something is yours, you accept the mess with the greatness. You call it out on its crap because the love is there. You feel every laugh, every fight, every uncomfortable situation to your core, and the new realities of gentrification temporarily become your reality. The only time you are taken out of the story are during two scenes of spoken word. Both purposefully taking you out to emphasize how those realities can only be fully felt if you have personal experience, allowing Casal and Diggs to put words to the emotions they can’t verbalize in their performances. It is a reminder that there is strife within the love of their city, and they must be able to recognize that strife in order truly appreciate the joy.
Blindspotting is hilarious and heartfelt. A cinematic representation of what residents have to do on the regular to survive their own erasure: laugh, cry, love, shout, fight, delight, embrace, and everything in between, all at once. It is simultaneously gut-wrenching and gut-busting, building the audience up to a thought-provoking conclusion that leaves the audience breathtakingly satisfied. I am giving Blindspotting 10/10 Mac Dre Thizz Faces.