The world is a terrible place, but it's even more so in the internet age. Not only you have to worry about conniving politicians, corporations and maniacs wandering in your neighborhood, you now have to deal with lonely and desperate white knights, looking for love, validation and a good fight on your Facebook newsfeed. See, I've watched FRUITVALE STATION, the critical success and already reputable directorial debut of Ryan Coogler, starring the talented Michael B. Jordan, one of my favourite young talents in Hollywood. I'm supposed to get really angry at this movie and tell you how disgusting and unprofessional the Oakland cops were towards Oscar Grant, but I wouldn't tell you anything you don't already know or can't Google if I did. So what is there to FRUITVALE STATION that make it a good movie, a proper sendoff for Oscar Grant that people would like to see?
FRUITVALE STATION pulls no punches about where it's going and shows you this footage right off the bat, telling you ''it happened'', ''this how it's going to end'' and ''turn it off if you can't take it''. I love this kind of boldness in a movie, especially when inspired by real events. Starting from there, FRUITVALE STATION goes backwards in reconstructing Oscar Grant, telling what kind of man he was and explaining the events that lead to his untimely and revolting demise. The idea is to live through his last day, while taking an occasional trip down memory lane. FRUITVALE STATION is a very simple, straightforward movie and you know how it's going to end before even pressing play. What it's trying to tell is not all that simple to understand, though : none of us are perfect, none of us are above the others and the smallest issue can go a long way without compassion.
I was very self-conscious about watching FRUITVALE STATION. It's a well-regarded film about an outrageous situation and I didn't want to fall in the trap of just talking about the Oscar Grant case, no matter how infuriating and unfair it is, because whoever watches this movie knows about that already. Fortunately for me, FRUITVALE STATION echoes my self-consciousness, somewhat. It's very cautious about depicting Oscar Grant as human, first and foremost. Through his last day, he discusses his infidelities with his girlfriend/wife, tries to get his job back and fights back memories about a prison stint. Strangely enough, it seemes like Ryan Coogler was afraid to make Oscar Grant look like a little bit of a deadbeat, because he included a strange, symbolic, abstract scene where Oscar keeps company to a dying dog who's been hit by a car and then wanders on the beach. It's a common storytelling mistake that can be put on insecurity, in an otherwise strong screenplay.
I liked how understated and even-handed FRUITVALE STATION was. Despite openly struggling with how it wanted to present its main character, the movie understand what it's trying to be and never shies away from collision course. Director Ryan Coogler achieves what I think was his goal, of going beyond a simple fictionalization of the Oscar Grant case. Because it's a very simple, straightforward case and it wouldn't have reached 85 minutes if it didn't have greater motives. FRUITVALE STATION is a test of compassion, an intricate portrait of a tormented young man who's life ended in a thoroughly unfair situation. Ryan Coogler wanted his viewers to form an opinions on Oscar Grant going into his dramatic death. FRUITVALE STATION is a movie that looks into you as hard and as thoroughly as you're going to look into it, to paraphrase a German philosopher with awesome facial hair.
FRUITVALE STATION is a knockout film because it carries the tragedy of Oscar Grant's death extremely well and yet it built to challenge its viewers. It's not tear-jerker or a melodrama. Ryan Coogler's goal was not to make you cry. David Foster Wallace once said the job of great fiction was to comfort the disturbed and to disturb the comfortable and this is what FRUITVALE STATION is all about. It's an understated, borderline minimalistic film that is trying to elicit a new, deeper reaction out of its viewers, about the Oscar Grant case. It's struggling with minor self-consciousness issue in its screenplay, but it's relying on the incredible talent of Michael B. Jordan and power of the real life events to carry its message. It's a movie that's bound to be discussed for several years, by the critics and the viewers both.