Fruitvale Station (2013)

Big opener: Fruitvale Station is my favorite film of 2013. It won both the Grand Jury Prize (Dramatic) and Audience Award (U.S. Dramatic) at the 2013 Sundance Film Festival. After seeing it, I believe its certainly deserving of the accolades.

(In the interest of fairness, I still haven’t seen “Her,” or “American Hustle,” but intend to. That said, they would have to be exceptional—I mean unexpectedly fantastic—for me to place them above “Fruitvale”).

The film opens with shaky camera-phone footage of the infamous incident at the San Francisco-area BART subway station. (If you don’t know what exactly that is, no matter; you’ll be reminded almost immediately). The grainy footage shows a group of young, African-American males on the ground, surrounded by several police officers. There is yelling, shoving, and some commotion. In an instant, the participants’ lives are indelibly changed.

The entire movie takes place over one day, New Year’s Eve 2009. We meet Oscar Grant, played by Michael B Jordan (HBO’s “the Wire,” “Red Tails,” “Chronicle;” you may have also seen him in trailers for the newest, soon-to-be-released Zac Efron picture “That Awkward Moment”). Oscar’s 22-years old, and works at an upscale, Whole-Foods-esque grocery trying to carve out a better life for him and his family. He’s dabbled in weed dealing before, but is trying to get on the straight-and-narrow. He has a young daughter Tatiana (Ariana Neal) with his girlfriend Sophina (Melonie Diaz, whose face is familiar, but who I couldn’t place specifically; an IMDB search says she’s been in countless films and TV shows, the most prominent of which are “A Guide to Recognizing Your Saints,” and the Jack Black/Mos Def/Michael Gondry film “Be Kind Rewind”). She’s often on him to grow up, and get his life together. He clearly cares about them both enough to try.

We see Oscar do all the every-day things people do: take his daughter to day care, arrange birthday dinner for his mother Wanda (played by Academy-Award winner Octavia Spencer who, along with Forrest Whitaker, is also one of the film’s producers), call his grandma for a fried-fish recipe, etc... In almost every way, Oscar is a thoughtful, kind, normal, middle-class everyman, struggling to make his and his family’s lives better. Except that he also happens to be African American in a country where that, alone, is sometimes enough to raise suspicion.

“Fruitvale Station” is fairly straightforward. Told mostly in flashback, it shows an average day, in the life of an average young father. The specific details of that day all lead up to the fateful moment at the subway station. What elevates the film is that it contains simple, honest, joyous, life-affirming moments, where we connect with its characters. Several times these moments had me smiling and laughing. The fact that the movie opens by showing the harrowing event that will ultimately occur to its characters later in the film, is an interesting directorial choice. During the movie we get to know, and grow fond of its characters, leading up to that dramatic climax. This chronological story-telling decision (to put the ending first) made the inevitable conclusion all the more powerful, and heart-rending.

Some may see parallels between this film, and 1991’s “Boyz in the Hood.” Without question they share themes and dramatic elements. Also, they were both directed by promising, precocious, young (in “Fruitvale’s” case, almost unbelievably young; director Ryan Coogler was only 27 when he made the movie) African-American film makers.

However, “Fruitvale Station” reminded me more of the 2006 Ryan Gosling film “Half Nelson.” They’re both stories about decent young men who, while occasionally screwing up more than a little, care genuinely about kids, and honestly strive for better places for themselves. Both movies might be reduced to being called niche, genre films (“A Black film,” or “Drug film,” respectively). However, each is so much more than that. They’re both about the bonds their characters share, the difficult struggles of life, human frailty and failure (and their tragic results), and finally redemption. Each shows overwhelming sadness but, I think, is ultimately positive and optimistic in its outlook. (Like “Fruitvale Station,” “Half Nelson” was my favorite movie the year it was released).

I implore you, in the name of all things good and true, see this movie. I was surprised by how deeply its pure and sincere performances touched me, as well as how far it exceeded expectations. The fact that it’s based on a real-life event only adds to its appeal. You will recognize other notorious TV headlines in this story. If you’re like me, these reminders will at once make you angry and sad, yet hopeful. It’s a credit to the filmmakers that “Fruitvale” can conjure such a broad range of emotions, so effectively.

PS- I’ve intentionally tried not to give too much away in this review. Which isn’t easy, given that the film examines a national news story. However, even if I have, don’t worry; you haven’t learned anything here that you wouldn’t in the film’s first five minutes. You will enjoy this movie, even if you think you know exactly what’s going to happen.