BLINDSPOTTING a Comedy/Drama: Spot On Highlighting Racial Injustice, Violence and Gentrification

BLINDSPOTTING is an intelligent, entertaining & ambitious film.  It serves to take blinders off unperceptive admissions of racial stereotyping, race relations, gentrification and cultural appropriations.  The pervasive slaying of unarmed black men by white officers/men who then appear unfairly shielded from persecution attributed to their fair skin tone, is the scathing spotlight of this absorbing & discomfiting film.  And, it tackles more than a "Black Lives Matter" movement.  There's much to extol in this risk taking filmmaking that is co-written, co-produced by its co-stars Daveed Diggs ("Hamilton") and Rafael Casel.  BLINDSPOTTING is an astonishing debut feature film for Diggs, Casel and director Carlos Estrada (b. Mexico).  The collaborative project took nearly a decade to complete (mostly due to Diggs' work conflicts).  The film is fierce & unafraid to mix visual styles and art forms with brutality and without blinking an eye.  Collin (Daveed Diggs) and Miles (Rafael Casal) are life long friends growing up together in a tattered but tightly knit community in Oakland. Collin is black with dreadlocks and Miles is white with a gold mouth grill, black girlfriend & bi-racial son, Sean (Ziggy Baitinger; guilty of scene stealing).  The story's timeline starts with 3 days left on Collin's probation.  The kinship between Collin & Miles is established early on in the film.  The buddy comedy genre with colorful characters sets a hilarious tone which rapidly turns dark. Collin is pressed to make curfew on his probation when he unwittingly witnesses a black man fleeing from a white officer who fatally fires at the man into his back.  The officer & Colin lock eyes at the scene.   Colllin is faced with a life altering conundrum; would his testimony against the office have credibility & will reporting the officer derail his release?  The tender & funny moments are overshadowed by gruesome scenes of violence & haunting images from Collin's conscience particularly when envisioning those gunned down & nightmares of being incarcerated.  The images of Sean playing with his father's (hidden) loaded gun and miles of bloody black men grounded in front of tombstones are indelible.  Our obsessive & destructive gun culture, "culture vulture" appropriation and gentrification are subjects annexed in addition to a sobering "hands up - don't shoot" paradigm.  There are artistic stretches & creative licensing that disrupt some of the film's credibility.  Still, the dismantling of a photography studio with white/black headshots & overlain images of unearthed trees are stylized and poignant but heavy handed.  The coincidence of Collin & Miles confronting the officer involved in the fatal shooting is also a long shot.  But, this allows for an intense grandstanding rapping session with piercing lyrics unfortunately lost amidst this preposterous plot spot.  Nevertheless, BLINDSPOTTING is a movie that is mind-blowing & eye opening despite its inherent flaws.  If you're not seeing this movie first as a scathing social commentary, at least see it for yourselves with an open mind.