Best friends. Almost everybody has one. And those who don’t prabably want one.
On the other hand, where do you draw the line with them? In other words, for those who do have best friends, you never really know when you might be confronted with that. The circumstances might vary considerably, but there it is: the commitment.
What are you willing to do for your best friend? What are you obligated to do? Where do you draw the line?
And, this being a movie, the circumstances are volatile indeed. Collin is out on paraole. He’s a black man confronting the final three days of his probation. Above all else, he must stay out of trouble. Only, as we suspect, Miles, his own best friend, who is white, is almost never not in trouble.
Then the part about race, the part about class, the part about gentrification, the part about police brutality, the part about tumbling into an urban world [Oakland, California] that is going through changes. You can’t go back, you don’t want to go back, but the path forward is strewn with uncertainty. And so much is at stake.
Also, the film explores the idea that someone’s behaviors can only really be understodd as a “a product of his environment”. We are shaped and molded by the world we lived in, by the world we grew up in. How much of that has to be taken into account when the time comes to make some changes yourself?
But then the part where Collin is rapping to the cop. I mean, come on.
Look for “heightened language”.
IMDb
Structurally, the film is close to a Shakespearean play with a small epilogue. The main action of the film is bookended by classical references: the opening montage of Oakland is not set to hip hop or other urban music, as is the norm for other “gritty city” films, but to an operatic chorus from Verdi’s " La Traviata" “Libiamo ne’ lieti calici” (“Let’s drink from the joyful cups”), and the “Shakespearean” rap.
trivia at IMDb: imdb.com/title/tt7242142/tr … =ttqu_sa_1
at wiki: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blindspotting
trailer: youtu.be/-9-HBqVbtTo
Blindspotting [2018]
Directed by Carlos López Estrada
Judge [to Collin]: All right. Now that you have completed your two-month sentence at Alameda County Jail, Santa Rita, you will proceed to a halfway house facility to begin your one-year probation period. You will have an 11:00 p.m. curfew, maintain employment, carry out assigned chores. Do not travel outside of Alameda County, and have zero altercations with law enforcement under any circumstances. Any infraction, fighting, drug use, et cetera, will result in immediate return to Santa Rita. Mr. Hoskins. Mr. Hoskins. Mr. Hoskins. Mr. Hoskins. Give me a verbal confirmation that you’ve heard and understood these parameters.
Collin [who seems to be somewhat in a daze]: Yeah.
Title card: 11 months, 27 days later…3 days left on probation.
[b]Collin: Nigga, I got three days left on this probation, Miles, so let me on out of the car.
…
Collin: Nigga, why are there six guns in your car, Dezz?!
…
Collin: Hey, man, do me a favor. When you got that gun on you, just don’t tell me about it. Plausible deniability.
Miles: What gun are you talking about, Collin?
[Miles pulls out a handgun]
Miles: Oh! Oh, do you mean this gun?!
…
Collin: I, uh, saw the cops kill a nigga last night.
Miles: Ooh. What you mean you saw it?
Collin: Dude runs up past the truck and then the cops came up, shot him.
Miles: Is he dead?
Collin: Oh, yeah, he dead. They shot him like four times.
Miles: I mean, that don’t necessarily mean he dead. Not like they shot him 14 times like that motherfucker out in Milwaukee.
…
Newsman [on TV] After a pursuit in West Oakland last night, a dramatic standoff with police left one suspect dead.
Miles: This the shit you saw?
Newsman: He was evading arrest by fleeing down Adeline Street towards West Grand…
Miles: You see this cop?
Collin: Yeah, I saw him.
Newsman: …police officers fired four shots, killing the man.
Miles: This cop see you?
Collin: Yeah.
Miles: What, then you just left?
Collin: I mean, it was after 11:00. What I’m supposed to do?
Miles: But you’re a witness. You’re not gonna leave like a statement or some shit?
Collin [pretending to be phinong the police]: “Hello, police? I’d like to report a murder you did. I was out after curfew. Yeah, I’m a convicted felon. All right. Back to jail? Yeah, tomorrow works for me. What time?”
…
Nancy [Collin’s mother]: You really couldn’t find an apartment? The whole damn city got a “For Rent” sign on it.
Collin: “Have you ever been convicted of a felony? If so, what is the nature of your crime?”
Nancy: Well, whose fault is that?
Collin: Damn.
…
Mama Liz: How do I know these things even work?!
…
Collin: I was driving, but if he reach across me and honk the horn, then what I’m supposed to do?
Val: Collin, just take some responsibility for the things that are happening around you.
Collin: I’m not denying it. I’m just saying that maybe this time it wasn’t the black guy with dreads that did it.
Val: Now if you could just get rid of all this hair. You’d almost look…
Collin: Less blamable?
…
James [from the Halfway House]: You’re late, Mr. Hoskins.
Collin: You just stand there all day? Isn’t this something we could automate?
James: You want a robot telling you to mop the bathroom? How about a robot that just mops the bathroom? Then I can go get some sleep.
Collin: Solutions oriented. See, I like that.
James: Even better. How about motherfuckers just don’t get arrested for dumb shit?
Collin: I see where we’re going here, but if we could just get to it…
James: Then I don’t have to enforce seemingly arbitrary tasks to establish your ability to follow rules as a representation of law.
Collin: Arbitrary. That’s the word right there.
James: Don’t make me write you up for your last week. The judge will extend your time here a year. And then your little map box sentence starts over.
Collin: Convicted on dirty bathroom charges?
James: You are now a convicted felon, Mr. Hoskins. You are now that until proven otherwise. Prove otherwise at all times.
Collin: Got it.[/b]
Title card: Last day on probation.
[b]Collin [to Miles]: Didn’t she say something about a boat?
…
Collin: What is your problem with Val?
Miles: Val is a disloyal bitch. When you were in jail, did she put money on your books? Uh, did she come visit you even one time at Rita while you were locked up? 'Cause I’m pretty sure I went two times a week, 45 minutes each way. $500 on your book on day one.
Collin: Hey, she talked to me on the phone.
Miles: How gracious of her to have called you once. And what did she want to talk to you about? About changing up your lifestyle? Changing up your ways? You’re not a thug, drug dealer! You went to jail on a fire technicality.
Collin: Did I?
Miles: Yes! How were we supposed to know that hipsters are so flammable?[/b]
Cue Topher and the Scorpion Bowl
[b]Val: Collin and his white friend stomped that drunk dude until he was unconscious. He was in the hospital for a week? And all over a drink.
…
Val: You’re about to get a fresh restart. You need to get rid of Miles.
Collin: Miles is my best friend.
Val: Yeah, is he? 'Cause I know you guys grew up together, but he’s gonna put you back in jail or he’s gonna get you fucking killed.
Collin: Miles had my back since we were 11 years old. When I went to jail, Miles came and saw me all the time.
Val: I’m not talking about this with you again. He came to visit you out of guilt. ‘Cause he pushed you into a fight, and he didn’t go to jail with you. What if that dude had had a gun? What if Miles’ dumb ass had a gun? What if the cops showed up and they saw you stomping that white dude? Who do you think they would have shot? Miles?
Collin: Good night, Val.
…
Sid [one of the gentrification yuppies]: What the fuck you think you’re doing, man? Come on, this is my fucking house! Get the fuck out of here, man!
Woman: Get the hell out!
Man: Yeah, dude, go home.
Miles: Get the fuck out of where? Huh? Get the fuck out of where?
[Miles pulls out his gun]
Woman: He’s got a gun!
Miles [firing the gun]: Y’all get the fuck out of here! Y’all get the fuck out! Oh, yeah, y’all love Oakland now, huh? Get the fuck out of here! Go!
…
Collin [about Terry]: That is Nak’s partner!
Miles: I don’t give a fuck who the fuck it is! Nak’s partner, is that yo’ partner? No! Is that yo’ partner? No! You know how many times I’da have yo’ back out here? How many motherfucking times I’da stepped up fo yo’ ass? Huh? And you didn’t do shit to help me! - Collin: Because…
Mies: Look at my face, bruh!
Collin: Because it was fucking stupid, Miles!
Miles: Look who the fuck I am? Where the fuck I am, Collin? That’s how the fuck I survive out here! You wanna act brand-new, then fine. Go ahead. Be a hipster, get a tech job or some shit. And go act like you don’t know where the fuck you from!
Collin: I ain’t got to prove to nobody where the fuck I’m from!
Miles: Oh, good for you!
Collin: Nigga, you got something to prove to everybody!
Miles: Yeah? That’s ‘cause I’m livin’ somewhere where now everybody got me fucked up! You ain’t gotta do shit! You ain’t gotta…You ain’t gotta worry about you changing up your clothes or your lifestyle. You ain’t gotta worry about none of that shit! You’re a big black dude with fucking braids in Oakland! Nobody is misreading you, Collin.
…
Collin: Say it.
Miles: What?
Collin: Say “nigga.”
Miles: Oh, fuck you!
Collin: Say it! Say, “Yeah, my nigga!”
Miles: No, and you know…Cause you know I don’t say that shit! But what?
Collin: So it’s okay for me to call you nigga, nigga?
Miles: You been calling me that since we were fucking 12 years old. I’m not gonna stop you now. Do what the fuck you want to, -say what you want to say.
Collin: Nigga, if that is so disrespectful, then why is it okay for me to call you that? You’re a fucking nigga! You’re a fucking nigga, Miles!
Miles: Why are we talking about…
Collin: You out here acting an ass like it ain’t no fucking consequences for that shit. And every nigga who sees me thinks that I do the same dumb, fuckin’ ignorant, gun-carrying shit that you do! But I’ve been taking care of my shit! I fucking…Don’t I do our timecards every week? I pick us up. I keep you out of dumb shit, and then what do you do? You go out and you buy a fucking gun for what? For your family? You are the nigger that they are out here looking for!
…
Miles [after Collin turns and walks away from him]: Where the fuck you goin’? Where the fuck are you goin’? Collin! Collin! Well then, fuck you then! You hear that? Then, fuck you then!
…
Ashley: Well, maybe if you niggas weren’t so wild all the fuckin’ time.
Miles: Could you not call me that?
Ashley: What, “nigga”?
Miles: Yeah, can you not call me that, please?
Ashley: Okay.
…
Collin [on the phone]: How’s the memorizing coming?
Val: Yeah, just trying to learn these psych terms.
Collin: What did you come up with for the double picture one? The face and the vase one? Val: Oh, I like that one. It was “blindspotting.”
Collin: Why “blindspotting”?
Val: 'Cause it’s all about how you can look at something, and there can be another thing there that you aren’t seeing. So you got a blind spot.
Collin: But if somebody points out the other picture to you, doesn’t that make it not a blind spot anymore?
Val: No, 'cause you can’t go against what your brain wants to see first. Unless you spend the time to retrain your brain, which is hella hard, so you’re always gonna be instinctually blind to the spot you weren’t seeing.
[Collin says nothing]
Val: Collin?
Collin: When you look at me now, do you always see the fight first?[/b]
Title card: First day off probation.
[b]Collin [holding a gun on the ex-cop Molina who killed Randall]: 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? When you dead him? Do you understand? How old was he? Nigga, how old was he?
Ex-cop: He was 26.
Twenty-six? That’s how many years you decided didn’t mean shit. All this talking don’t mean shit. I mean, shit!
…
Collin [to the ex-cop]: The difference between me and you is…I ain’t no killer. I ain’t no killer.
Ex-cop [after Collin leaves the room]: I didn’t mean to.
Miles: Are you sure?[/b]