The movie opens on Collin (Daveed Diggs) in his last three days on parole. He and his best friend of many years Miles (Rafael Casal) are movers in Oakland (the setting is important to the movie), and Collin is trying to prevent Miles' short temper and wild outbursts from getting him sent back to jail. It doesn't help that on the drive home that night, he sees a white police officer shoot and kill an unarmed black man, an event that haunts him throughout the movie.

That sounds dark, it is dark. But this is a "comedy-drama," and rarely in your life will you see a movie that so beautifully walks the line between those two genres. It brings home all the fear of being black in a neighbourhood policed by white officers, but it's never just about that: Collin has a life, he has problems, but that's not where it ends. Collin and Miles are intelligent even if they don't always make the best decisions, there's a lot of good in both their lives, and they're very interesting to spend 90 minutes with.

It's easy to see why Collin's ex- tells him he needs to cut Miles out of his life for his own safety, but it's equally easy to see why Collin and Miles are best friends: Miles, as volatile as he is, is incredibly loyal ("loyalty" being one of his favourite subjects), funny, and very loving to his family. It's rare to find characters this well portrayed in dramas, almost unheard-of in a comedy-drama.

Eye-opening, heart-wrenching, and hopeful - highly recommended.