Let's be realistic.

Instead, you get a movie that's enjoyable enough, but leaves you feeling like it could have been much, much more.

Your blood may run cold, but you now find yourself pinioned to the story.

Great example of an old-fashioned, pure-at-heart escapist event movie that doesn't pretend to be anything that it's not and has boat loads of fun being its own ludicrous self.

Blindspotting is a film with some very strong scenes interspersed inbetween a wider array of more or less average ones.It tries to delve into a series of heavyweight issues of the likes of racism and discrimination for the average non-white man living in today's world, and despite it trying to portray this via an unorthodox approach than usual, it doesn't always succeed in the delivery. That said, it does have its moments, but they are far and few. In addition to that, this film had an overall vibe that made it more suited to be acted out as a play than in a film. All in all, this film does okay in most departments, but its unremarkable and anticlimactic ending as well as the overall uneventful story makes it dismally unsuccessful in conveying its message to its viewers.

A tight-ass, smooth moving, well-worded script, mixed with a bright yet frightening but most certainly enticing concept, sprinkled off with some fine-acted, well-rounded, deeply-driven characters makes Blindspotting an abstracted, politically-grounded, and uniquely-given film that's exclusively up there with the big-shot, jackpot, academy-nom topknots. (Verdict: B+)

Collin (Daveed Diggs) faces the last three days of his probation and his turbulent relationship with his volatile buddy, Miles (Rafael Casal). In Blindspotting (a term use to describe one's being ignorant of stereotypes), everyone is in transition, beginning with Collin and ending with the city of Oakland, which must deal with the dynamics of gentrification while it continues struggling with racism on almost every front.More like Spike Lee's Do the Right Thing and less like Ryan Coogler's Fruitvale Station, this exciting comedy/drama catches the cultural complexity of a dynamic urban setting without despairing over the constant economic and racial setbacks. That the buddies are white and black and regularly reviewing their racial makeup (watch them dash around the use of "nigger") adds a figurative layer debut director Carlos Lopez Estrada handles deftly and almost unobtrusively.As Collin avoids being associated with a gun in his last probation days so Miles buys one for protection, leading to challenges with their friendship and the Oakland Police Department. The dramatic tension parallels the tense transition of neighborhoods as they gentrify and lead the players to question their own and their neighborhoods' identity. Both young men are movers of furniture and the like during the day, linking them to the central change motif. As the film exploits Diggs's facility with hip-hop, it is able to catch the poetic nature of the changes while forging a relationship with reality.Thus the art and the reality intersect in a far more elegant process than might be expected. It sings in hip-hop about diversity, while it deals with the reality of a white cop murdering a black 26 year old. For a time as tumultuous as ours, Blindspotting is more powerful about change than all the editorials in the finest liberal tomes of our times.

Blindspotting manages to create amazing chemistry between it's two leads, landing both it's realistic drama and exaggerated surrealism. It benefits from a motif of free-styling that lifts the film to a state of poetic commentary benefitting its occasional dreamlike qualities. There was a fear from me that the film would seem amateurish from its budget and momentary poor acting from supporting cast members, but the tight script, pacing, comedic moments, and two leads swept me in making this an insightful and thrilling drama. My main criticism is that sometimes it feels more driven by the message of the film rather than by the characters and scenarios, and some moments were on the nose (this is one of the movies where the title is explained in one expository-ish scene). However, it is definitely a gripping film that in my mind might not stick the landing but engaged me in a manner that was stylistic and nuanced. 8/10