FRUITVALE STATION – The Review

Just when black America is up in arms over the George Zimmerman verdict, along comes first time Director Ryan Coogler’s FRUITVALE STATION to fan the flames. It’s about an unarmed young black man shot by a white cop, a true incident that resulted in protests and riots in San Francisco a couple of years ago. FRUITVALE STATION is impressive for a debut film, and is admirable in its intent to involve the audience in the human story behind the headlines. It’s been hailed as a powerful, harrowing and emotionally devastating piece of filmmaking by some but for the life of me, I cannot begin to understand why. It’s a solid film and well-acted but bogged down by a meandering, rambling and dull first hour….and for a film that only runs 85 minutes, that’s a big problem!

If you are unfamiliar with the tragic story, 22 year old Oscar Grant was accidentally shot and killed by a Bay Area Transit cop after on New Year’s Eve in 2008. A fistfight occurred had occurred on a train between Grant and an old prison nemesis and the officers pulled the combative Grant aside to detain him. All of this was caught on cell phone video by passengers, and the aftermath brought protests in the city. The officer was tried and found guilty of involuntary manslaughter and sentenced to two years. He claimed he mistook his gun for his Taser. He had switched their positions on his belt the day before and witnesses at his trial testified that he yelled “Step back, I’m gonna taze him” before pulling the trigger, a fact conveniently left out of the film. FRUITVALE STATION opens with a clip of this so the audience knows that when Grant wakes up on the morning of December 31^st, 2008, it will be his last.

Filmed in a handheld, quasi-documentary style, FRUITVALE STATION follows Grant (played Michael B. Jordan), a 22-year-old Bay Area, over his last 24 hours. Grant calls his mother (an irresistible Octavia Spencer) to wish her happy birthday, helps a white woman at a grocery store decide what kind of fish to buy, pumps gas in his car, and visits his 4-year old daughter. My biggest beef with FRUITVALE STATION is that it’s simply the day in the life of a young man who’s not a very interesting person and certainly not someone I would want to spend time with in real life. Director Coogler earns points by not portraying Grant as an angel. He sells drugs, lies to his mother, cheats on his baby momma (Melonie Diaz), and displays a dangerously hot temper to a former boss who’d fired him for habitual tardiness. Flashbacks show his mother visiting him in prison (we’re never told why he was incarcerated), then turning her back on him when he acts like a jerk.

In addition to lucky timing, FRUITVALE STATION benefits from a fine, realistic performance by Michael B. Jordan in the lead. Jordan displays loads of natural charisma and makes Grant more likeable than he perhaps deserves. I also really liked Kevin Durand, a tall actor I remember being impressed by in REAL STEEL, in a small but powerful role as one of the cops who fatally confronts Grant. There’s some real tension generated in the film’s final 20 minutes only because you know what’s going to happen and therefore brace yourself for the inevitable. FRUITVALE STATION captured top honors at this year’s Sundance Festival and is generating Oscar buzz, more likely due to racial politics than actual quality. It’s a good film, but oversold and undeserving of the gushing praise being heaped on it.

3 of 5 Stars

FRUITVALE STATION opens in St. Louis July 26th at Landmark’s Tivoli Theater