Netflix And Chill: Blindspotting (2018)

Blindspotting is an incredible film. There's no point in trying to keep you waiting to hear my view on it. Because I'd like everyone to rush off and watch it immediately, before or after reading this review. It's not really thought-provoking, sadly, but simply underlines the huge problem of systemic racism that doesn't seem to be getting any better (particularly in the USA, but it's not a uniquely American issue).

Daveed Diggs and Rafael Casal (who also wrote the movie) star as, respectively, Collin and Miles. Collin is just finishing up his probation, after serving some jail time, and he wants to get that out of the way. One night, while driving home, he is shaken up when he sees a man chased down by a police officer and shot. This serves as a timely reminder of just how slippery the slope is for someone like himself, now a black man with a felony on his record, and how he would most likely suffer much worse consequences for his actions than Miles, who is hot-headed and problematic, but less likely to be shot by officers thanks to his white skin.

The first, and only, feature directed by Carlos López Estrada (I'll be very surprised if things stay that way), Blindspotting works as a great piece of entertainment throughout, but it also maintains an added layer to it that lends weight to every moment and builds tension in a number of ways that allow viewers to also consider their own blindspots (whether they are intentional or not). Much like a certain scene in Get Out, this is a film that has extra tension when it wouldn't necessarily play out that way with a white protagonist, and it's those moments, as much as the incredible finale, that make you realise just how often you might be choosing to ignore the reality that others around you are very much living through.

As well as their sterling work on the script, Diggs and Casal are perfect in the lead roles. Diggs is very easy to like, and he's not painted as an angel, despite the fact that his friend is the one who causes the most trouble. Casal, for his part, has enough charisma and energy to make his character much more tolerable than he otherwise would have been. Get the wrong actor in that role and the whole film is unbalanced. Janina Gavankar does well in the role of Val, someone Collin may have some kind of relationship with, depending on how he moves forward in his life and what she can see in him when it is being clouded by mistakes and misplaced loyalty, and Jasmine Cephas Jones is equally good as Ashley, the partner of Casal's character. Ethan Embry appears for a small, but pivotal, role, and you also get a fine little turn from Ziggy Baitinger, a sweet child actor involved in a couple of sobering moments, and cameos from Wayne Knight and Leland Orser.

On the one hand, it can be quite saddening that a film like this has to be made, and even more saddening that it probably won't reach those that need to see it the most (including the people who feel the need to reply to "black lives matter" with the tiresome "all lives matter", which is on a par with replying to tales of sexual abuse and harassment with a reminder that it is "not all men"). On the other hand, this is an incredible, intelligent, effective way to get across an important message.

9/10

You can buy the movie here.
Americans can buy it here.