BLINDSPOTTING Review

At the beginning of 2018, Daveed Diggs’ and Rafael Casal’s Blindspotting (2018) premiered at the Sundance Film Festival. It subsequently played at such fests as SXSW and ATLFF (Atlanta Film Festival), and garnered even more praise, so as you can imagine, I was very excited to see what the filmmakers had cooked up as I sat down for my screening of the film.

With a plot similar to a Shakesperian novella, Blindspotting (2018) follows Collin (Daveed Diggs) who is navigating his last three days of probation. This is until one night when he witnesses a cop shoot a innocent black man, and he begins to re-think his relationship with the police, his family, and most importantly his best friend Miles (Rafael Casal), who frequently gets him in trouble.

Blindspotting (2018) is truly a violent assault on the senses, with a special concoction of violence, love, and hope that isn’t found in films with this type of subject matter. The filmmakers assault your senses with incredible cinematography, heart pounding tension, and an emotionally charged finale.

Blindspotting Review

This aforementioned concoction only works because of how much the filmmakers make you care about the characters. They present them in a touching, realistic way that makes you feel for them as they navigate the treachery of the situations they are in. Without such lively characters, the film could have easily navigated into the overly depressing waters, which wouldn’t have worked for this story.

Where the film starts to tread into murky waters is in its unbalanced narrative structure. Throughout the first half of the movie, it feels like a lot of sketches as opposed to scenes, and while they work solely, in the overall grand scheme of things they don’t mesh well.

Although I do have some minor issues with the film, Blindspotting (2018) is easily one of the most important films of the year (subject matter wise) and deserves all of the praise it has received.

Final Score: 8 out of 10.