Blindspotting (2018, Daveed Diggs)

[sandman slim]

I'm with Jacob on this one. Upgrade is still my number one for 2018, Blindspotting is second. And both will be high on my list when we do the "best of the decade" poll. Upgrade had no chance for any awards, but Blindspotting should have been nominated across the board. In the years ahead, people will be discovering this amazing film on video & streaming, and wondering how the hell it got overlooked.

[jacobsever]

Originally Posted by HorrorBlu

Is it possible this got ignored because of an influx of police-shooting movies all hitting at the same time? This, The Hate U Give, and Monsters And Men were pretty much staggered (August, September, October). Even Widows (November) and If Beale Street Could Talk (December) deal with this.

I enjoyed all of these movies except Monsters And Men, but the subject matter doesn't exactly scream "fun times at the movies". Beale Street seemed poised for a Best Picture nomination, but didn't even make the cut.

But that's the thing. Blindspotting has almost nothing to do with police shootings. That's what the trailer lead the viewers to believe, which probably turned some people off.

Blindspotting was much much more about personal identity, cultural and societal identity, gentrification, friendship. The white cop shooting a black man didn't place itself in any of the thematic readings of the film, it was simply a plot device to kick all the other parts in motion.

[willtopower]

That's not true at all. There's an amazing cemetery scene that says otherwise...

[MifuneFan]

The police shooting is one important aspect of the film, but it's not the theme of the whole film. Jacob isn't wrong, gentrification, and identity are much stronger themes in the film.

The police shooting is something that's always there for Collin. It's something that haunts his dreams, and eventually starts to haunt him in real life. It's something that makes him realize more and more how much the color of his skin, or being an ex con, or who he associates with defines who he is to other people, especially cops. That is an identity issue, the shooting is merely what gets the ball rolling, but it'd a disservice to define the movie as a whole as a "police shooting movie".

[Shingster]

Yeah there's so much more going on in the film that labelling it as a predominantly "police shooting" or "black lives matter" movie is really selling it short.

[willtopower]

Originally Posted by MifuneFan

The police shooting is one important aspect of the film, but it's not the theme of the whole film. Jacob isn't wrong, gentrification, and identity are much stronger themes in the film.

The police shooting is something that's always there for Collin. It's something that haunts his dreams, and eventually starts to haunt him in real life. It's something that makes him realize more and more how much the color of his skin, or being an ex con, or who he associates with defines who he is to other people, especially cops. That is an identity issue, the shooting is merely what gets the ball rolling, but it'd a disservice to define the movie as a whole as a "police shooting movie".

Identity is tied to the shooting. That's what makes the climax so powerful;

[Show spoiler]the gun is in the other pair of hands.

It's not a "police shooting" movie (if there is such a thing), say like fruitvale station, nor is it the only theme, but the shooting is a very important theme. I would argue it would be an equal disservice to discount that.

[Member-275053]

Originally Posted by willtopower

Identity is tied to the shooting. That's what makes the climax so powerful;

[Show spoiler]the gun is in the other pair of hands.

It's not a "police shooting" movie (if there is such a thing), say like fruitvale station, nor is it the only theme, but the shooting is a very important theme. I would argue it would be an equal disservice to discount that.

Well, there were three last year (including this one): https://www.vulture.com/2018/09/mons...en-review.html

But, feel free to keep debating it here.

[SMOOT]

I watched Blu-ray Netflix disc of Blindspotting last night. On 3 places in the disc, the Dolby Atmos audio track dropped out completely for several minutes.
All of the other soundtracks (Spanish Language and the 2 commentaries) were working fine.

Is this a single disc issue or do other copies have this problem.

I have Dolby Atmos and have not experienced this with any other title.

[Scott in UK]

Wrote this in the UK forum, so thought id put it here too.

Been having a search online the past few days for some recommendations/reviews or 2018 best film lists, so have been very randomly choosing things to watch and this film was one of them, and i watched it last night. So thought id give some thoughts. General consensus seems to be that this film got missed by alot of people.

The 2 main characters are a black guy (Colin) and his since childhood white best friend (Miles) Colin has been released from prison and on probation for nearly a year, and has 3 days of that probation left. Colin & Miles are working together as house removal men.



Near the beginning of the film we see Colin witness a police shooting (That's not a spoiler it's in the trailer) and i thought ok cool, that's obviously setting up the story, but the thing is it didnt have to much connecting to that for the most part, apart from it haunting him in his mind from time to time.

So for about the first half of this film, i thought is this film actually going anywhere and gonna give me anything to latch onto, because to me it seemed like it was wandering aimlessly from scene to scene with not much happening or progression. Altho now knowing the films conclusion i could now forgive that somewhat, or that now knowing where the film is heading that i probably now wouldnt need to let that bother me on a re-watch and just enjoy it. Or that in hindsight i can see those scenes meaning more now.

To me there is 3 good scenes in particular, one of which is about half way through, which is the 'scorpion bowl' scene which shows how Colin got sent to prison in the first place, but it's described in a funny manner. It also shows how even tho Colin is a nice guy overall, he did have some bad ways in the past. That's one of the first scenes where i thought im now actually getting abit more meat to put on the story.

That scene above is about the funniest in the film too. Some reviews have mentioned that this film does have a strange tone at times of being serious with some seemingly wanting to be funny moments, which i did notice, and that the attempting to be funny parts didnt particularly land for me for the most part. But they can be overlooked. Very minimal parts made me chuckle, this is an Uber? and how jacked up and high off the ground the car is at the beginning, and almost making the little kid repeat the word "motherf*cker".

The other 2 scenes which as i say dont come until quite late in the film and which then made me think "at last, now this film is getting gripping" is when they are at a party and Miles causes trouble and after they run away from the scene Colin & Miles have an argument. This argument is very intresting and thought provoking with it's racial tones and sterotyping and highlights how black people can be portayed in society and how they are made the scapegoats and blamed for everything (and i suppose also add to that keep getting shot and killed by police) but the intresting contrast or hypocrosy is that his white friend Miles wants to be black or thinks it's cool to be black and behaves like a black guy and that ironically it's Miles that's actually causing all the trouble.

The climax to the film is the other great scene when they are on a house moving job. I didnt see it coming at all, and was an out loud "ohhhhh shhhhit" moment from me, and funnily enough in the movie Miles then said that word immediately after me too. Haha.
Colin then has quite a powerful verbally expressive scene, (that comes from him throughtout the movie making up raps/ryhmes.) The last line is a nice touch too, but il not reveal the last 4 words. "The difference between me and you is, _ _ _ _"


Like i said earlier, on a re-watch il probably forgive it to not seeming to progress much during it's first half, but from the fact the film seemed to get really good quite late in, it did make me think that things should of either happened sooner or that the film should of been longer, or that i had a feeling of as soon as it got really good, it ended!! When it got good i didnt want it to end! it's a short film at only about and 1hr 30m. I think it could of been 20 minutes longer or around the 2h mark.

I wasnt sure what to make of this film and didnt know if i liked it alot or just thought it was ok, and im still not sure, but iv certainly kept thinking about it, and the more i think about it i think maybe the more i like it. I definately recommend a watch, and i may end up buying it. Not sure yet. Good timing tho that it's literally just about to be released in the UK on Blu-Ray too.


One final thing to add in regards to the climax of this film and the review for the film on this website, and that's that the reviewer says he doesn't wanna give away any spoilers but then as far as im concerned he then immediately goes on to do so.

[Show spoiler]The reviewer reveals that they then run into the police officer during the house move at the end of the film.

Well from the fact i didnt see that moment coming when watching and was a total surprise, then the reviewer is spoiling the surprise by mentioning it. I think the reviewer got it wrong in his perspective or where he thinks the spoiler is. It's almost as if the reviewer thinks just not describing how the scene plays out is avoiding the spoiler, when from my watching perspective, him revealing the main surprise is actually the spoiler.

[levcore]

Watched this last night and yes, it's an excellent movie. Well scripted, brilliantly acted with lots of good twists and turns. A few moments did seem a little contrived such as

[Show spoiler]why didn't Colin chuck the gun as soon as he could. Considering his character and situation it seemed insane that he would keep it on him.

Ethan Embry was great as the cop, hardly any lines but he really sold the turmoil his character was going through.

[Kaiju]

Why isn’t this nominated for best picture? Or even best original screenplay?

Such a shame.

[fatboy1111]

A+ movie !!!!!

[meremortal]

Looks like a great movie and it's on sale in 4k on Vudu. Has anyone compared to that stream? It'd be gaining 4k pq but losing the lossless audio and commentary tracks.

[Creed]

It's also free to rent, on streaming services.

[The Debts]

Originally Posted by Creed

It's also free to rent, on streaming services.

Perfect movie to rent tbh.

[Pounder]

I'll check it out for Free

[Himmel]

http://youtu.be/fCtdIC666Ec