Review #939 - Fruitvale Station (2013)
THE SCOOP
Director: Ryan Coogler
Cast: Michael B. Jordan, Melonie Diaz, Octavia Spencer
Plot: The purportedly true story of Oscar Grant III, a 22-year-old Bay Area resident, who crosses paths with friends, enemies, family, and strangers on the last day of 2008.
Genre: Biography / Drama
Awards: Un Certain Regard - Avenir Prize (Cannes Film Festival); Won Grand Jury Prize and Audience Award (Sundance Film Festival).
Runtime: 85min
Rating: M18 for some violence, language throughout and some drug use.
IN RETROSPECT (Spoilers: NO)
There's nothing fruity about this feature, the
directorial debut of writer-director Ryan Coogler, who takes a true incident in
2008 and dramatizes it for moviegoers. Winning awards at Cannes and Sundance, Fruitvale Station comes high with
expectations, perhaps too high for an American indie that is good but not particularly
great.
It is an important ‘message’ film nonetheless,
portraying the life of a single individual in a single day as fate has its way,
changing the course of the lives of his loved ones and strangers
irreversibly. This is like Crash (2005), but the focus is only on
one character.
Michael B. Jordan plays that character Oscar
Grant, the real-life subject of this drama in a performance that is just about right. It is the eve of New Year's Day in 2008, and
after celebrating with his girlfriend and daughter with home-cooked dinner at
his mother's place, he goes out with his friends for the midnight countdown,
taking the crowded train.
What happens thereafter is what makes Fruitvale Station a powerful and
gripping film. By then, it overcomes a
weak first half and suspends itself on a tightrope, giving a sense of tension
(and urgency) to the story.
Melonie Diaz gives the film's most outstanding
performance as Oscar's girlfriend, with Octavia Spencer (The Help, 2011) providing the supporting emotional anchor and
levity as his mother.
Shot in 16mm, Fruitvale Station is largely handheld and its cinematographic
approach is threadbare, working almost like a documentary except for a key
flashback sequence that reminds that this is structured as a narrative. Still, its raw approach is very much
befitting of its thematic material, which has a social-realist slant.
Racism and police brutality are its most
explicit themes, but as troubling as these issues are, the frailty of the
individual is the ore under the spotlight.
It is an ore that disintegrates when socio-discriminatory forces combine
to nullify the actions of the helpless.
In short, Coogler has achieved, with some
success, a film that illuminates these concerns, though it only gathers
momentum after some time. After which it
hits the gut with a sucker punch. Not as
strong a debut as its awards claim to be, but Coogler is a promising filmmaking
talent to look out for in the near future.
GRADE: B
Tweet
Follow @Filmnomenon
Click here to go back to Central Station.
TRAILER:
OST:
Comments