Blindspotting Blu-ray Review
Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman, November 16, 2018
Is Oakland, California really
that bad? Sure, it has a somewhat less glamorous reputation than its sister city across the bay, San
Francisco, but, again — is it really
that bad?
Blindspotting is now the second film in just the past few weeks that I've reviewed
that paints Oakland in a less than favorable light.
Sorry to Bother You depicted a downright
dystopian Oakland where a black man learns to survive as a telemarketer by using his "white voice", only to undergo a rather startling
transformation that is either surrealism or magical realism, depending on your particular bent.
That element may have lended a
"cartoonish" aspect to the entire film which made some of its more troubling aspects appear what might be termed whimsical. Despite toeing a
rather thin line poised between (often dark) comedy and more disturbing drama,
Blindspotting is more or less firmly rooted in "reality",
which makes some of its depictions of Oakland all the more unsettling. The film initially seems like it's going to be a comedy of errors detailing the
efforts of recently paroled Collin Hoskins (Daveed Diggs) to make it through his year of probation without getting sent back to stir. That
misdirection is probably aided by a "countdown clock" of sorts that appears on a few occasions detailing how much time is left, though the fact that
the first installment of this interstitial supertitle
indicates that Collin is in the last three days of his probation may indicate up front that the film actually has other things on its mind. Suffice it to
say that while Collin
does make it through his probationary period, one incident in particular haunts him going forward, even while his
continuing relationship with buddy Miles (Rafael Casal) repeatedly threatens to unravel into sheer chaos.
Both the chaos and the potential problems with making it unscathed through probation are on hand in the very funny segue from Collin's parole
board
hearing. From showing Collin in shackles in an orange jumpsuit in front of an unseen judge handing down the terms of Collin's probation, the film
abruptly switches to a marijuana smoke filled car where
Collin is in the back seat, with Miles and another guy in the front. An informational title tells us that there are three days more or less to go until
Collin has completed his probationary period, but the smoke filled car soon turns out to be a
gun filled car as well and the film goes to
almost
lunatic excesses to convince the audience that disaster is certainly in the cards for the hapless would be ex-con. Instead,
Blindspotting
repeatedly plays upon these expectations of Murphy's Law unfolding by first diverting attention and then, in one devastating sequence, subverting
all
the fear about Collin's future in a really disturbing moment that is unfortunately more "ripped from the headlines" than many folks would want.
With a forewarning that the rest of this paragraph may verge into spoiler territory, the moment that changes everything happens almost randomly
(perhaps one thing that makes it so powerful). Collin and Miles work together as movers and as Collin is attempting to get the moving truck back
home late one night, he more or less drives into an unfolding scene where a policeman ends up shooting and killing and unarmed black man. It's
a riveting sequence, one filled with dread and an understated panic by everyone in it (including the cop), and it immediately punches through what
has been a kind of cheekily humorous ambience up to that point. But here's the thing — much as
Blindspotting continually leads the
audience to expect one thing only to pull a rather brilliant "bait and switch" (in the best possible sense of that duplicitous sounding term), the film
also continually ping pongs almost schizophrenically in its tone, veering back and forth from often very trenchant humor to absolutely devastating
dramatic moments. The fact that it can so easily traverse these wide emotional changes is a testament to the writing power of stars Casal and
Diggs (they provided the screenplay as well), and the firm grasp on the material that Estrada brings to the project.
Another perfect example of this ability to bridge huge chasms in emotional content comes at the climax of the film. A lot of interstitial vignettes
have documented Miles' freewheeling tendencies, but he does repeatedly help to keep Collin on track, and that happens again, albeit somewhat
chaotically, very late in the story when it turns out a moving job involving the duo is actually for the cop that Collin has witnessed kill the black
man. Without getting into spoiler territory, the showdown between Collin and the cop is absolutely gut wrenching on any number of levels, and
once again Daveed and Casal's writing acumen really helps to bring out the humanity in
all of the characters. But after a sequence which
is absolutely drenched in dread and foreboding, the two guys are back in the moving truck, with Miles kind of half joking that pulling a gun on a
client isn't the best career move. Even
that joking element is combined with some unabashed emotion as Collin attempts to work through
everything he's seen and experienced. It's a really remarkable few minutes of writing, directing and performance excellence, and it really augurs
the "arrival" (despite previous credits, especially by Daveed) of a trio of very promising big screen talents.
Blindspotting Blu-ray, Video Quality
Blindspotting is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Lionsgate Films with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.85:1. Digitally captured with a
variety of Arri Alexa cameras and finished at a 2K DI (all according to the IMDb, though Arri cameras are clearly seen in the making of supplement
included on the Blu-ray),
Blindspotting has a bit of a "verité" ambience at times which can tend to offer a somewhat grittier, less sharp,
appearance than is often the case with contemporary shot films. There's quite a bit of outdoor material which pops authentically, with a vivid
palette that emphasizes some especially vibrant blues. Other scenes, like the first scene in the car after the parole hearing, are bathed in various blue
hues, and the central scene involving the policeman, alluded to in the main body of the review above, has some interesting red tones, but detail levels
remain
commendably high. A few scenes are shot with fairly effulgent back lighting, and detail levels are understandably lessened by the glow surrounding
objects. The film is peppered with close-ups, sometimes in split screen moments, and those offer excellent fine detail levels.
Blindspotting Blu-ray, Overall Score and Recommendation
My question about Oakland above isn't purely academic, since my eldest son has recently gotten his first post-college full time job there. Somewhat
hilariously, considering how the city is portrayed both in
Blindspotting and
Sorry to Bother You, my son told me before he even moved
there that there was no way he would be living in Oakland, and that despite the added expense San Francisco would be his "room and board" locale.
The Oakland Chamber of Commerce may want to rethink its marketing strategies given the one-two punch of these films, but in a way,
Blindspotting is actually an ode to two Oaklanders surviving and maybe even prospering together. This is a really fascinating film that runs an
extremely wide gamut in the tone department, so viewers are best advised to come prepared for sudden jarring changes in emotional content.
Technical merits are solid, and
Blindspotting comes
Recommended.