Intense performances shine the spotlight on race, poverty, police shootings, guns, education and more current issues in a well paced, well placed, dark comedy capped with a stunning climactic rap poetry slam. Daveed Diggs (Tony Award Winner for Hamilton) and Rafael Casal (HBO Def Poet performer) give more than convincing performances. They are best buds who grew up together in Oakland, California. And that was always their location choice for this film.
They attended one of the first screenings of the film in Chicago.The writers and stars of the film told us the spark that ignited their idea was their reaction to a shooting of a Black man in their home town when a BART police officer killed Oscar Grant in 2009. That incident was the basis of the movie Fruitvale Station. It’s a topic has only become more obvious and serious.
There have been so many more police shootings around the country with huge huge Black Lives Matter protests which rarely seem to last more than a few days and it disturbed the actors. They show it as a city where residents are being pushed out by rising rents, lack of equal education and good jobs and where gangs and crime are rampant. Diggs and Casal really wanted to give an accurate portrayal of their hometown and how it is different for a White man to be raised in a black and brown world like Casal and his character, Miles, was, as well as more social and economic issues in a majority minority town.
The laughs come almost as fast as the social commentary in this buddy film that’s also a rapid fire examination of the gentrification of Oakland. This film flows well considering it was helmed by first-time feature director, Carlos Lopez Estrada. That was no easy task working with Diggs and Casal, who are accomplished rap, hip hop, poet/musicians, It’s almost more of a score than a script.
They started writing this film 10 years ago and amazingly 90% of the script comes from the original draft. They told us the powerful rap Diggs does in the last part of the film is pretty much what they originally wrote and he shot it with multiple cameras in one take. Diggs and Casal are both poet/musicians, and they kept doing other projects while working on the raps, the script and the music. But they never thought this film would ever be made. This is their first feature, shot in 22 days in 38 locations. That’s one thing they say they’ll never do again. They were always on the move. But we think it paid off.
Collin (Diggs) is counting down the three days he has left on probation until he can start anew as a free man. Diggs is Black. His best friend is the wild White Miles (Casal), who is a hot-headed, free-wheeling bad influence. Both Collin lost his girlfriend,Val (Janina Gavankar – Barber Shop) when he went to prison. She also works at the moving company, but is going to school for Psychology trying to get a better situation. She explains the term Blindspotting from her textbooks. It’s when two people see the same object or situation, but in totally opposite ways. She sees Miles as a bad influence. Collin puts up with his schtick.
One night, Miles makes Collin stay out too late. They get in a car with a buddy who has a souped up ride that’s also his Uber car. The boys get a surprise finding not just one, but a number guns in the car. There is humor in the scene, but it’s also a dangerous situation for Collin. It’s nerve wracking to watch him worried when he’s just trying to get through he next couple of days with out trouble.
Collin leaves that night trying to beat his probation curfew when he witnesses a White cop shoot a black man in the back as he’s running away. The cop knows Collin saw the incident and looks him straight in the eye. Collin freaks. What if the cop comes after him?
But there is much more here. The scene where they find Miles’ girlfriend’s toddler playing with a gun is even more suspenseful and just as terrifying. Diggs and Casal make where they stand on guns perfectly clear.
The most amazing part of producing this film is how ambitious a project it was and how events over the past 10 years have made it even more relevant. Their vision was prophetic and it’s artistically entertaining. Diggs and Casal manage to pull off hilarious comedy with social commentary, and they wrapped it up in their art of rap in an enlightening package; one they didn’t think would ever be seen. We’re glad we did. We think you should, too.
Lionsgate 135 minutes R Reviewed July 20, 2018
