Review of Fruitvale Station (2013) by Adam P — 15 Jan 2014

What a totally enthralling and utterly brilliant film. This movie is filmmaking at its best. A film that is emotional and told with soaring grace and raw authenticity, Fruitvale station is the real life story of Oscar Grant, a onetime convict who is shot in the back by police on New Year's Eve in Oakland after a minor incident on a subway train sparks spirals out of control.

At the beginning of the film we see the real life cell phone footage of Oscar being subdued and shot by police while lying face down and handcuffed. The story then backtracks to early that day, showing the day in the life of Oscar who is desperately trying to do the right thing, take care of his family, find a job, make right with his mom and stay clean.

At various parts in the film we see Oscar struggle with his past, the desire to sell dope, yelling at his manager to get his job back when he was fired two weeks before for always being late. This is not a perfect individual.

He is flawed which is what makes the movie so brilliant. Whenever someone is gunned down by police in a high profile case like this or the Treyvon Martin shooting, the media try to polarize the man. He either becomes a saint or a villain.

He was either a good person, with a family always doing the right thing or a criminal with a history of violence and drug abuse. In Trevon's case, right wing media portrayed him as a violent man who got into fights all the time.

Left wing media portrayed him as an innocent kid. The same was true of Oscar. This film tries to cut through all that and tell the story of the man, flaws and all. The film is quite emotional and quite powerful and very personal.

Director Ryan Coogler lived in the bay area and was approximately Oscar's age when this tragedy happened. This story was made because it was so personal. It is told with unbelievable social consciousness and an urban authenticity that is often hard to capture.

Michael B. Jordan is phenomenal in his portrayal. The film that brought down the house at Sundance and Cannes has been little appreciated on the awards circuit, but make no mistake; it is one of the best films of the year.