FRUITVALE STATION This is not a spoiler. It is public record and well known.
Fruitvale Station is a stop on the Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) just one stop north of the Oakland Coliseum. It was there on or about 2:00 am January 1, 2009 a ruckus broke out in one of the passenger cars. BART's own police force responded and determined that a group of black men, that included 22 year old Oscar Grant, were responsible for the melee. What happened next is confused and disputed, but what is certain, is that the unarmed Oscar Grant was being restrained by a BART police officer and laying face down and prone on the Fruitvale Station's concrete platform when another BART police officer pulled out his weapon and fired once into Grant's back. At 9:00 am January 1, 2009 Oscar Grant died on his hospital bed.
This movie purports to chronicle Oscar Grant's last day on earth.
As we get to know Oscar we clearly see he is no angel. A philanderer, drug dealer, and an ex con with an explosive temper who can't hold a job. He wrestles with his checkered past and uncertain future, but he's no throwaway. He has a chance. He has a strong support system in a mother, girlfriend and daughter that love him, and he returns that love.
Whether or not Oscar will live up to his responsibility for his family or revert to the life of a street thug we will never know. The movie tells us he didn't get that chance because of a racial profiling that assumes that if there is trouble, and there are a couple of black guys standing around,then they must be the cause of it. The ultimate act, although I think the movie is muddled on this point, is not the act of some Aryan redneck racist, but of a societal norm that automatically assumes black male guilt and reflects that assumption through societal protective functionaries (the police et al) and which can't help but create a situation like Oscar Grant found himself in, with inevitable tragic results.
This is writer/director Ryan Coogler first feature. It's an impressive start for what is an apparently very impressive young man. An athlete and a scholar with an aptitude for math and science, he decided to go to USC film school. He came to the attention of Forrest Whittaker to whom he got to partner in this production, as well as picking up Harvey Weinstein to distribute. That's a pair of heavy hitters there. He is, in that unfortunate Hollywood adjective "gifted". I am reminded of Michael Caine's line in "Deathtrap" that "This play is so good even a gifted director couldn't ruin it." In any case he seems to have the talent and drive that will put him in good stead with Hollywood for a long time.
The cast is uniformly convincing with Michael B Jordan (the B so as not to be confused with the basketball player) giving us an Oscar that is tortured by his past mistakes but remains hopeful for his future. Melonie Diaz plays Oscar's girlfriend and mother of his child that Oscar clearly dotes over. Although Oscar has let her down and committed transgressions she must forgive, she refuses to have Oscar defined by a police blotter. The same is true of his mother in a powerful performance by Octavia Spencer who knows that her son has good possibilities and she will not forsake her faith in him.
Performance aside, this is Ryan Coogler's movie. It is a true expression of the auteur. It is his message; his statement. There comes a time when one has to decide how well that message is delivered.
This movie has received almost universal critical praise, but for me the message is a bit mixed. Coogler's starts the movie with actual cell phone footage (apparently there is quite a lot of it) of the incident and he moves the story along in docudrama fashion with an influence of Italian neo-realism. There is no question that Coogler is trying to tell us "this is real life". Yet, in the middle of the movie, he includes a rather disturbing scene with a dog which is plain use of the literary conceits of foreshadowing and metaphor. This scene does nothing to either advance the story or further define the character, and is the apparent invention of Coogler.
In the final scene two remarkable coincidences occur in the train car. It is here that the "real life" train car jumps the tracks, with an end result that confuses, obscures, and dilutes the powerful point he wants to make. As a consequence, it mutes my emotional response to the ending.
It's probably better to let the story to bring out the point, rather than let the point bring out the story.
Nevertheless and make no mistake about it, Coogler captures the tension and chaos on that train platform as a master filmmaker.
Despite my objections to some of his cinematic choices, I admire Ryan Coogler's film. The conversation on race here in America, if indeed it can be called a conversation, has created a lot of heat and not much light, and much of it is just pure nonsense. Coogler has for the most part forsaken ideology and focused on the humanity of Oscar Grant. He has created a character that all of us can identify with. At least to those of us who have screwed up sometime in our lives and fought for a second chance.
I think that's most of us.
To see all my reviews just click on my name above, or see my blog Bloggin' Movies.
Fruitvale Station is a stop on the Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) just one stop north of the Oakland Coliseum. It was there on or about 2:00 am January 1, 2009 a ruckus broke out in one of the passenger cars. BART's own police force responded and determined that a group of black men, that included 22 year old Oscar Grant, were responsible for the melee. What happened next is confused and disputed, but what is certain, is that the unarmed Oscar Grant was being restrained by a BART police officer and laying face down and prone on the Fruitvale Station's concrete platform when another BART police officer pulled out his weapon and fired once into Grant's back. At 9:00 am January 1, 2009 Oscar Grant died on his hospital bed.
This movie purports to chronicle Oscar Grant's last day on earth.
As we get to know Oscar we clearly see he is no angel. A philanderer, drug dealer, and an ex con with an explosive temper who can't hold a job. He wrestles with his checkered past and uncertain future, but he's no throwaway. He has a chance. He has a strong support system in a mother, girlfriend and daughter that love him, and he returns that love.
Whether or not Oscar will live up to his responsibility for his family or revert to the life of a street thug we will never know. The movie tells us he didn't get that chance because of a racial profiling that assumes that if there is trouble, and there are a couple of black guys standing around,then they must be the cause of it. The ultimate act, although I think the movie is muddled on this point, is not the act of some Aryan redneck racist, but of a societal norm that automatically assumes black male guilt and reflects that assumption through societal protective functionaries (the police et al) and which can't help but create a situation like Oscar Grant found himself in, with inevitable tragic results.
This is writer/director Ryan Coogler first feature. It's an impressive start for what is an apparently very impressive young man. An athlete and a scholar with an aptitude for math and science, he decided to go to USC film school. He came to the attention of Forrest Whittaker to whom he got to partner in this production, as well as picking up Harvey Weinstein to distribute. That's a pair of heavy hitters there. He is, in that unfortunate Hollywood adjective "gifted". I am reminded of Michael Caine's line in "Deathtrap" that "This play is so good even a gifted director couldn't ruin it." In any case he seems to have the talent and drive that will put him in good stead with Hollywood for a long time.
The cast is uniformly convincing with Michael B Jordan (the B so as not to be confused with the basketball player) giving us an Oscar that is tortured by his past mistakes but remains hopeful for his future. Melonie Diaz plays Oscar's girlfriend and mother of his child that Oscar clearly dotes over. Although Oscar has let her down and committed transgressions she must forgive, she refuses to have Oscar defined by a police blotter. The same is true of his mother in a powerful performance by Octavia Spencer who knows that her son has good possibilities and she will not forsake her faith in him.
Performance aside, this is Ryan Coogler's movie. It is a true expression of the auteur. It is his message; his statement. There comes a time when one has to decide how well that message is delivered.
This movie has received almost universal critical praise, but for me the message is a bit mixed. Coogler's starts the movie with actual cell phone footage (apparently there is quite a lot of it) of the incident and he moves the story along in docudrama fashion with an influence of Italian neo-realism. There is no question that Coogler is trying to tell us "this is real life". Yet, in the middle of the movie, he includes a rather disturbing scene with a dog which is plain use of the literary conceits of foreshadowing and metaphor. This scene does nothing to either advance the story or further define the character, and is the apparent invention of Coogler.
In the final scene two remarkable coincidences occur in the train car. It is here that the "real life" train car jumps the tracks, with an end result that confuses, obscures, and dilutes the powerful point he wants to make. As a consequence, it mutes my emotional response to the ending.
It's probably better to let the story to bring out the point, rather than let the point bring out the story.
Nevertheless and make no mistake about it, Coogler captures the tension and chaos on that train platform as a master filmmaker.
Despite my objections to some of his cinematic choices, I admire Ryan Coogler's film. The conversation on race here in America, if indeed it can be called a conversation, has created a lot of heat and not much light, and much of it is just pure nonsense. Coogler has for the most part forsaken ideology and focused on the humanity of Oscar Grant. He has created a character that all of us can identify with. At least to those of us who have screwed up sometime in our lives and fought for a second chance.
I think that's most of us.
To see all my reviews just click on my name above, or see my blog Bloggin' Movies.