Blindspotting <\/i>is nearly a musical. Music \u2014 specifically rapping \u2014 plays a significant role in the development of the film\u2019s themes and its main characters, best friends Collin (Daveed Diggs) and Miles (Rafael Casal), to the point where rapping sometimes takes the place of dialogue. And the film, written by Diggs and Casal, is better for its lyricism. Throughout, the presence or absence of rapping gets to the heart of Collin\u2019s struggle to break out of his criminal image and points toward Miles\u2019 complicated relationship with his friend and his hometown.<\/span><\/p>\n Miles, a white person from Oakland, is often portrayed as an aggressor, as a man whose masculinity can turn toxic. He\u2019s a loving father and husband, and a good friend, but he\u2019s also consumed by his pride. Miles buys a gun to protect his family but doesn\u2019t consult his wife, or respect the fact that Collin, in his last days of probation, can\u2019t be around guns. The gun goes off (as it must), leading to an incredibly charged shouting match between Collin and Miles about who Miles gets to be as a white person from Oakland. Collin points out that many of the negative stereotypes that are consistently leveraged against himself true about Miles; Miles just gets away with it because of society\u2019s blind spots toward him.<\/span><\/p>\n Part of that complicated identity that Miles has formed is rapping. Most of the scenes that involve Miles rapping or using spoken word are incredibly entertaining and hysterical, director Carlos L\u00f3pez Estrada injecting lyricism into both the blocking and editing. But Blindspotting <\/i>also points to the lingering emptiness behind how Miles, due to that complicated identity, sometimes makes use of lyricism. <\/span><\/p>\n Two of the most explicit moments are when Miles raps to sell things. It\u2019s not that that\u2019s inherently empty, but it becomes his most prominent reason for rapping, rendering it more about showmanship and performativity. After a spoken-word back-and-forth between Miles and someone interested in a boat that Miles and Collin are selling, Collin asks Miles what he was saying to the buyer. Miles reveals that he didn\u2019t really know what he meant by any of it. He just wanted to sell the boat.<\/span><\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/crookedmarquee.com\/stage8\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/blindspottingrap.jpg\")
<\/a>On occasion, Miles uses rapping, sometimes freestyling, positively. The first time that Miles and Collin share a scene alone, the two freestyle together, playing off each other and hyping each other up. It\u2019s truly special bonding that sets up a powerful basis for their friendship. And toward the middle of the film, when Collin and Miles, working as movers, are clearing out a run-down house and Collin starts freestyling, Miles feeds off of him, quietly including a sad line about his dad. It\u2019s one of the few times Miles gets vulnerable, and it\u2019s no mistake that it\u2019s through rapping.<\/span><\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/crookedmarquee.com\/stage8\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/blindpostting.jpg\")
<\/a>With tension mounting on a silenced Collin, Blindspotting <\/i>seemingly has to end in the way that it does. Having made it past his last day of probation, Collin goes out on a moving job \u2014 as fate would have it, to the house of the murderous cop. Collin discovers this and finds the man in the house, prompting an unbearably tense standoff. The cop goes for his gun on a shelf, but Collin gets to it first, holding up the cop. <\/span><\/p>\n