Blindspotting (2018)
Director:
Carlos López Estrada
Tagline:
« What Do You See? »
Actors:
Collin
Miles
Val
Ashley
Officer Molina
Rating:
(34’387 votes)
(34’387 votes)
Quotes:
« Collin: You monsters got me feeling like a monster in my own town!
»
« Collin: [Pointing his gun at Officer Molina] Does this scare you, huh? Fuck you know about being scared? Were you afraid someone was gonna come find you? Huh?
»
« Miles: Bruh.
»
« Collin: What, Nigga? I'm just… I'm just talking to him! Ha! You said make it pretty, right? It's the bounce of it. They like the bounce of it. Like a tree on a sign, nigga, we cut right down. Paul Bunyan-ass cops come to chop me at the knees and search the trunk in my own town. Did you count his rings when you bled him? Huh? When you dead him? Do you understand? How old was he? Nigga, how old was he?
»
« Officer Molina: He was 26.
»
« Collin: 26? That's how many years you decided didn't mean shit. All this talking don't mean shit. I mean, shit! I been in my element, eloquent, spitting hella developin'. I been tellin', shellin' and not to walk like a felon and fucking flippin' the middle finger to feelin' irrelevant. Reveling in my freedom till you turned heaven to hell and hello, sir? I'ma need you to open your fucking eyes now and look and see. You might think you know what's happening, but you don't feel it like we do! To feel it, it has to be you! Cut you, but you don't know what the cut do! You are reflex, but when reflux bleeds the gut, then you see the faces! Leave the vases. Moving people in and out for a fee. Feeding this town decay and appetite of me. An appetizer, huh? I must be tasty, but I stay angry, 'cause y'all get hazy! I'm the one out here stuck on a clock, loving the curfew to keep me off the block! Fuck, what time is it? What time? What Time? Nope, fuck it, I did my time. How come every time you come around you monsters got me feeling like a monster in my own town? I say it while I'm rapping, nigga, 'cause everyone conditioned to listen to a rapping nigga. But I'm rapping to the active nigga, you the one cappin' niggas! So quit the flash and feel like your passion, nigga! Hittin' us till our headstones stuck in the mud! We stuck it out, it turned us into some thugs! Got a whole city brand-new and they kickin' out us! Maybe we should both break shit, make a fuss! I am both pictures! See both pictures! Don't be blindspotting me, nigga! See both pictures! Guess I'm just a little bigger than a picture playin' chicken with a cliff, but I ain't never been a flincher. Block is getting hotter, I'ma be the one to bring the winter fuckin' everybody on the body of a cop, the splinter. I mean, why wouldn't I dead him? He's splittin' wigs for 80k a year and ain't from here, who'll miss him if he disappear? Fillin' up with fear, I know you feel it. I've been feeling it for years, in fact, I don't remember ever never feeling it! The one that going dummy never felt the need to run, but I've been sprintin' till I limp across the finish with a gun! Up in my blind spot, really! Ain't to hard to figure that you probably never really felt the pressure of a nigga, but you know what? I ain't never felt the pressures of a trigger! The difference between me and you is… I ain't no killer. I ain't no killer.
»
« Officer Molina: I didn't mean to.
»
« Miles: Are you sure?
»
« James: You are a convicted felon, Mr. Hoskins. You are now that until proven otherwise. Prove otherwise at all times.
»
Trailer:
Blindspotting
Runtime:95 minutes
Plots:
While on probation, a man begins to re-evaluate his relationship with his volatile best friend.
Collin (Daveed Diggs) must make it through his final three days of probation for a chance at a new beginning. He and his troublemaking childhood best friend Miles (Rafael Casal) work as movers and are forced to watch their old neighborhood become a trendy spot in the rapidly-gentrifying Bay Area. When a life-altering event causes Collin to miss his mandatory curfew, the two men struggle to maintain their friendship as the changing social landscape exposes their differences. Explores the intersection of race and class set against the backdrop of Oakland.
In West Oakland, Collin Hopkins, a Black man who works for the Commander Moving Company as a mover, is a convicted felon on the last three days of his one-year parole. Among the many restrictions contained within his parole are living in a halfway house which has its own additional rules, having curfew, not being allowed outside of Alameda County, and no possession of firearms; contravention of any of these items could extend the length of his parole, or worse, send him back to prison. Collin, whose felony was largely a matter of unexpected circumstance, wants to do the right thing and lead a straight life. And despite having made it through the first 362 days of his parole, it isn’t a guarantee that he will make it to the end clear, let alone make to the end at all due to the environment in which he lives, which includes people, like him, of a lower socioeconomic standing having to adjust to the gentrification happening within the community. One of the larger threats is his association with Miles Jones, his married best friend since they were kids and his moving partner. Miles, a Caucasian, feels like he has something to prove being white and living in West Oakland, something that Collin inherently doesn’t have to prove being Black. But what could be the biggest threat to Collin is being haunted in witnessing a white police officer shoot a fleeing Black man to death in the back late in the evening of the third to last day of his parole–being shot for no reason by the police, something that Black people like Collin face every day. Through it all, Collin tries to negotiate his relationship with Val, his girlfriend before his incarceration and the dispatcher at Commander, who is taking more outward steps to improve her life to match that gentrification which may not include associating personally with someone like Collin, especially in light of having seen the aftermath of what sent him to prison.
