Fruitvale Station
Perception is one of the more difficult things to explore on cinema. Many films become subject to bad criticism because the perception was never portrayed correctly. But it transcends cinema into everyday life. People have acute conceptions on how people are. A girl with tattoos is a rocker. A woman in sweat pants is a chav. A group of kids are out to cause trouble. A boy with baggy trousers is a thug. When these thoughts with added tensions to a massive heightened effect collide, moments happen in a blink of an eye and someone dies. In the case of Oscar Grant, it was a wrong perception, a heightened emotion and a crowd of seconds that lead to his unjust death.
Fruitvale Station revolves around the Oscar Grant shooting of 2009, when a BART transit police officer killed him on News Years Day. Taking us back a day, the film focuses on Grant and his life leading up to that event. After losing his job and cheating on his girlfriend, Grant is determined to get his life on track in order to provide for his family that include his daughter and his mother. As he morally tackles chosing between selling drugs (something he has been put in prison for before,) and trying to support his loved one, he makes plans for the tragic night.
What director Ryan Coolger does is never waver from Grant’s story. Presenting this quiet emotive story, Coolger concentrates on the life. He never presents Grant as a law abiding victim but he doesn’t damn him as a criminal. Instead he tells a story that doesn’t distance itself from this character exercise on how someone can overcome his mistakes and try to better themselves. This ultimately makes the finale moments even more shocking. Slowly building up to the shooting, Coolger strips back most of the film in order for the end to impact you as much as you can. It’s emotive and strong, showing how confusion and anger can lead to the loss of someone’s life.
Michael B Jordon is absorbing as Grant. He never questions this now figurehead in culture as being anything but human. This tantalising performance quakes with ferocity and tenderness. This is Jordon’s film, allowing him to layer this man with endearing qualities and past mistakes. He never becomes a caricature, instead his acting is powerful and very real. Portraying both the calm likeness of Grant as he supports his family and the anger underneath that spills over from time to time. Jordon has proved that he is one of the most important actors coming to prominence. This movie is unnerving especially centred on his incredible and intense acting. Alongside Octavia Spencer, whom exerts tenaciousness and love as his mother, guiding him in this resilient way.
The political and social fall out of Grant’s case will still trickle into our society now. Though initial protests lead to violence, the peaceful reaction and rage against the circumstances are a clear heart throughout the film. Fruitvale Station is an incredible, stunning film that provides a soul to a tragic story that is very real sorrow in our history. For a first feature length movie Coolger has presented an incredible cinematic piece that is full depth, life and death. This is very much an honour to Grant and his family. It has immortalized him even more and it is perhaps one of the finer movies of this year.
Fruitvale Station is out tomorrow.