Review of Fruitvale Station (2013) by Jason D — 03 Mar 2014

Criminally ignored after its award-winning debut at Sundance (and bleakly relevant in the year of the Travon Martin tragedy), the true story of the final 24 hours of Oscar Grant is profoundly moving, sincerely acted, and brilliantly directed by first-timer Ryan Coogler (who also wrote the screenplay).

Small on visual trickery and symbolism but vast in raw, honest humanity, Coogler's unflinching drama about Oscar, a former prisoner determined to turn his life around for the sake of his girlfriend and daughter, doesn't try and whitewash history.

Grant tries to give up selling weed, but still gets high. He has anger issues, lies about keeping a job he got fried from through sheer laziness, and has put his poor, patient mother (Octavia Spencer) through hell time and time again, to say nothing of his girlfriend (Melonie Diaz, who deserved far more recognition than she received for the role).

With all of his faults, however, Grant didn't deserve to die. Not at the hands of the LAPD, not while trying to stop an altercation, not while handcuffed in Fruitvale station while New Years Eve partiers filmed it with their phones, so that unlike more recent cases, no argument could be made as to who was wrong or right.

The boldness of beginning the film with the actual footage of the tragic killing is reminiscent of last year's Amour starting with the corpse of Emmanuelle Riva. The death is inevitable, and the outrage should not come as a shock at the end, but rather build as you connect to a good man looking for a second chance.

This is the film that made Michael B. Jordan the hot name that he is now, an the fact that in any other year he'd be an Oscar frontrunner is undeniable (Chiwetel Ejiofor went and took this year's "Minority Actor" slot in the Best Actor category, and if you think I'm kidding, check any year after 2006).

Perhaps the most grossly under seen film of the year, Fruitvale Station deserves a second look (or for many, a first).