FRUITVALE STATION - MIFF 2013

If I was going to skip any night at this year’s MIFF, it would have been this night.  I was only seeing two films, both American indies, and my anticipation for both was seriously lacking.  Thankfully I chose to still attend because both of these films turned out to be excellent.

“Fruitvale Station” is the dramatic re-enactment of the final twenty-four hours in the life of Oscar Grant who was shot dead by police, whilst unarmed, on New Year’s Day 2009 in Oakland.  This has to be one of the saddest films that I saw at MIFF this year mainly because of how senseless Grant’s murder turned out to be.  Michael B. Jordan gives a brilliant and sensitive performance as the doomed Oscar.  He is a flawed man, in and out of jail due to drug possession, and sometimes he is cowardly despite his false bravado, but what Jordan’s performance highlighted was the warm heart he had inside and just how devoted a father he was to his little girl.  His eyes light up like a kid himself when he is around Tatiana, which brings to light the real tragedy of this story, that this little girl lost her father.

Personally I do not know if this is an accurate depiction of who Oscar really was in real life; whether or not he was really trying to clean up his act at the time of his death and while the image of him as presented in the film is quite a clean cut one, I am glad that director Ryan Coogler didn’t go so far as to make Oscar a saint.  He showed the flaws in the man, but he also gives him a hell of a lot of redeeming qualities too to make him likable (although the scene of Oscar crying over a dead dog may have been a bit overboard).  The fact that Jordan is so charismatic onscreen also helps significantly in making the audience love Oscar too.  What did come across as very real was the depiction of Oscar’s short fuse and the fact that he has a lot bottled up inside of him.  There are a couple of instances in the film when Oscar almost explodes into violence only to be calmed down by his friends or girlfriend.  Speaking of his girlfriend, Melonie Diaz is just splendid in the role of Sophina.  There is something behind her eyes, a world wariness, which makes her so watchable.  You can see that she loves this man but is tired of his antics and forever being let down by him.  Like her co-star, Diaz is also incredibly charismatic.

As much as I loved “Fruitvale Station”, I did find a few faults with the film.  In reality, Oscar Grant’s murder was captured on video on someone’s phone and this video footage is presented at the beginning of the film.  By doing this, Coogler has actually undercut the drama of the film and has even used the real dramatic footage as a cheap way to garner emotion out of the audience.  All the scenes of happiness before him going out for the New Year’s celebrations now have a bittersweet quality to them because we know he is going to die and how.  It actually trivializes the powerful footage which I do not think is a good thing.

Another problem, which I have alluded to already, is that this appears a very clean presentation of the facts.  While the performances seem real in and of themselves, the world they inhabit doesn’t always.  There is a complete lack of racial tension in the film which I felt was the most surprising aspect of “Fruitvale Station” and it didn’t really ring true, especially when after Oscar Grant was killed it sparked a number of serious and violent protests about race and police brutality.  Sadly this part of the story isn’t even looked at in the film which is really a lost opportunity as it would have given “Fruitvale Station” some much needed depth.

Finally there was one scene that just did not fit in the film at all and that was the scene with Oscar’s mother and friends all praying together in the hospital for his survival.  It just seemed so manipulative and desperate, like Coogler wanted to hammer home the point of just how sad Oscar’s passing truly was.

While it sounds like I am being really hard on “Fruitvale Station”, in actuality I found it riveting as well as tragically sad.  The final scroll that comes up before the credits explaining how little time the policeman got for murdering Oscar (the man claimed he mistook his gun for his taser, so the death was deemed accidental) just makes you so angry at the justice system, and then the final photo of Oscar with his daughter just breaks your heart.  There is a lot of buzz associated with “Fruitvale Station” and while the film definitely has its flaws, most of the buzz is warranted.

3.5 Stars.