PARK CITY, UTAH — The Sundance Film Festival, even in this rather introspective year, is always overstuffed with quality offerings, but I was still surprised not to see one of my favorites, “Blindspotting,” among the award winners
This dynamic, poetic ode to Oakland, CA from screenwriting collaborators Daveed Diggs (“Hamilton”) and spoken-word artist Rafael Casal, directed by first-timer Carlos Lopez Estrada, snagged the prestigious opening night slot at the festival and sold to Lionsgate midway through the fest.
A buddy comedy centered on the efforts of Collin (Diggs) to peacefully serve out his last three days of a year-long probation, it’s a mashup of drama, gentrification satire, race-relations drama and hip-hop vehicle. The cinematography, by Robby Baumgartner, recalls Spike Lee’s renderings of Brooklyn (both in his early days and in the underrated Netflix update of “She’s Gotta Have It”), with musical interludes set against gorgeous footage of both old-school and new-school Oakland. Ten-dollar green smoothies, sold at the local bodega, are a recurring and symbolic joke.
Diggs and Casal, who co-stars as his best friend and moving-business co-worker Miles, reportedly worked on the screenplay for a decade, long before Diggs hit it big with his turn as the freestyling Thomas Jefferson in “Hamilton” (a co-star from his days in the musical, Jasmine Cephas Jones, joins him here, playing Miles’ wife Ashley). Diggs’ rap skills are put to great use, particularly in a climactic confrontation scene, and every so often the playful or pugilistic banter between Collin and Miles takes a turn into verse.
Several plot points intertwine, including a police shooting and the dangers of gun ownership, to form a moving, heartwrenching, funny, sometimes absurdist portrait of one man’s struggle to move beyond the title of “ex-con” when the world seems to want to keep the label glued to his mover’s coveralls. One dream sequence in particular is the most arresting (so to speak) set piece I saw all week. If you ask me, the real blind spot here lies with the Sundance jury.