Review: Fruitvale Station
Saturday, July 20, 2013 at 1:00PM This review was originally posted in my column at Towleroad
Fruitvale Station, the first legit* Oscar Best Picture contender of 2013, hit a few theaters last Friday after months of pre-release buzz.
The buzz was fueled by a double triumph at Sundance this past January where it took home both the Audience Award and the Grand Jury Prize. The feature debut of 27 year-old writer/director Ryan Coogler tells the true story of the death of a 22 year-old African American man named Oscar Grant, who was shot by police on New Year's Day in 2009 at the Fruitvale BART Station in San Francisco. Watching it last Friday it felt like a modest success, a solid specific slice-of-life drama if not a great or ambitious one. But context is a funny thing. The very next day it was feeling much bigger.
Nothing exists in a vacuum and that includes the movies. On Saturday George Zimmerman was found "Not Guilty" in the death of Trayvon Martin, another unarmed black man (this time he was only a teenager), whose life was snuffed out nonsensically. The Weinstein Company who distributed the movie couldn't possibly have had better (or sadder) timing. If Fruitvale Station were a fictional drama, it might have felt unnervingly prescient opening when it did but since it is also based in fact it arrives like a stinging reminder of a shameful national pattern.[more...]
The movie begins with grainy cell phone footage of the shooting and then steps back to retrace the last twenty-four hours of Oscar Grant's life. Structurally this gambit is hit and miss. During Fruitvale Station's clumsier moments, like a fictional scene involving a stray dog or a factual one when Grant's mother (played by Oscar-winner Octavia Spencer from The Help) suggests he take the train that night, this technique backfires. You can practically hear the first-time filmmaker screaming "FORESHADOWING!" in the background as if we're on a morbid countdown watching Oscar on his clueless death march. But for good long stretches of the movie, especially in its simpler moments when Oscar hangs with friends, banters with relatives or argues with his girlfriend (Melonie Diaz), it works quite well.
If writer/director Ryan Coogler sometimes pulls his version of Oscar from Passive Protagonist to Sanctified Hero his lead actor Michael B. Jordan, so reliably strong (see: The Wire, Friday Night Lights and Parenthood), usually tugs back presenting Oscar as a full human: outgoing, nice and charming, sure, but also hot tempered and inconsistent in his behavior and loyalties. An early scene in a grocery store where Oscar used to work perfectly captures this dynamic. The written details of the two-part scene are simple. First Oscar goes out of his way to help a customer and then he asks his boss for his job back. Both actions could be played completely sympathetically as 'nice guy who just needs another chance' but Jordan complicates the scene suggesting that the two actions are inextricably linked and showing just enough attraction to the customer and just enough anger with his boss to make you cringe a teensy bit at his underlying motives as well as his own culpability in his larger problems with his girlfriend at home and his lack of employment. This tug of war between the movie and the actor for Oscar's soul makes the movie fairly involving even though we're spending much of the time eavesdropping on phone calls and text messages (annoyingly superimposed onscreen) and driving around the Bay Area aimlessly.
It'd be unfair to attribute all of the emotions that this debut film stirs up to its quality. But then, that's often the case with art of any medium that tackles a provocative topic, spurs conversation or strikes a resonant note with the zeitgeist. When you ask the right question at the right time, anything seems possible... including mad Oscar attention for a minor success.
"How much is this life worth?" is the question that eventually sneaks up on you as you finish the movie and think on it afterwards. And the answer, thanks to the movie's better moments and Jordan's star turn is "quite a lot".
*No, it might not be a Best Picture in the qualitative sense but it is the only film to open (thus far) that stands a good shot at making that coveted shortlist.
Grade: B-/C+
Best in Show: Jordan is as able as ever but I was especially drawn to Melonie Diaz who has a LOT less to work with but rescues her longsuffering girlfriend from the stock role it could have been, delineating her character's compromises (her reaction to the details of Oscar's spontaneous drug-related decision is perfectly pitched and funny), motivations, and specific emotional makeup quite well.
Oscar Chances: I felt a little sad watching it that I can't help but view new films through an Oscar lens should any awardage have already come their way. Fruitvale Station is too modest an achievement to wear any Oscar costumes well -- mark my words people will really hate on it once it starts winning major awards traction. If it's the success I expect it to be in release you should count on talk to coalesce immediately and primarily around Michael B Jordan (though he's very young, statistically speaking, for Oscar attention in Best Actor), Octavia Spencer (Supporting Actress) and its debut writer/director Ryan Coogler.
Reader Comments (19)
How did you feel about Octavia Spencer's performamce?
He IS very young for Best Actor attention. Oscar loves young women, not so much young men... still, it's nice to see him with this role, he was so very good in FNL.
I will say they do seem a little less gun-shy about young black actors. Denzel, Terrence Howard, Jamie Foxx, Will Smith, and Laurence Fishburne all picked up nominations pretty young. Couple wins in there too. I think there's a fear that if these young men don't get recognized they might never get another good shot, so the Academy tends to drop a bit of the pretension.
I refuse to believe Before Midnight isn't on the short list. Just sayin'.
Excited to see this one.
I watched this last night. I was floored by it- not because of the artistry as many of the points you raise are very valid, but by the relevance. I too found myself asking what is a life worth. And I think it's entirely Jordan's performance that leads the viewer to that point. Despite the director's very fresh clumsy influence, he manages to portray Oscar as a real person , unique and sympathetic without being a saint.
I love that you singled out Melonie Diaz. Her performance is incredibly sincere and despite the fact that she is set up to be overshadowed by Jordan and Spencer inany of their big moments , I couldn't keep my eyes off of her. There is a lot of talent there and I can't wait to see more of her. Her reaction to Oscar's death (the physicality of it) was perfectly executed. That said, I am fully confident that in terms of awards, Jordan and Spencer are going to be huge. Jordan very deservingly so and especially this year. And Spencer well her role is what the supporting actress oscar was created for really. Had she not recently won I'd say she s a big threat for the win. I say the director has no chance. Too fresh of an effort.
My favorite scene: the prison scene. It is gonna be octavia spencer's award scene and i would not mind watching it over and over again. Incredibly reminiscent of the We Need to Talk about Kevin finale. You can rarely go wrong with mothers visiting sons in jail and then walking away bravely, their hearts about to explode while the sons revert to crying infants. Ayayay ... Jail. A terrible thing.
Note on Original screenplay:
The Counselor (That's really the only one I think we can know for sure (how likely is it that, regardless of quality, the Academy is going to pass up the chance to ACTUALLY NOMINATE Cormac McCarthy?))
Blue Jasmine (I think the writer's branch might acknowledge Gravity as a thinly written excuses for directorial exertions. GREAT directorial exertions, because it's Alfonso Cuaron, but still DIRECTORIAL exertions.)
The World's End (I know you don't see this as an Oscar movie, but I could see the "open to genre" portion of the writers branch going "Y'know what, we, AT LEAST, should stump for the guy this year. He's a great writer and overall filmmaker.")
American Hustle: Actually, O Russell is credited as co-writer on this feature, so I think it's maybe a bit more likely and it's a respectable movie that might not have sloppy/forgettable writing.
Fifth slot: Between Frances Ha, The Past, Her, Dallas Buyer's Club and (if released this year) Foxcatcher.
Clarence -- i thought she was very good for most of it but unfortunately overstated that one key scene (the "you should take the train" scene). Maybe that was the direction but it really range false. Otherwise i thought she was super. But i was all about Melonie Diaz who has a more thankless part but is wonderful in it. I hope this leads to major things as she's been kicking around the movies since RAISING VICTOR VARGAS (such a goodie!) but still hasn't really broken through
your review is spot on. While I was very moved and appreciated the actors, it is a minor work. But the emotional punch it throws is a wallop and hits you straight in the gut.
Jordan impressed over a decade ago with his role on my soap All My Children. His skill was far beyond his years and he made quite an impact. His scenes with Susan Lucci were great entertainment. Erica got put in her place quite often.
You don't think Mud is a contender for one of those Best Picture slots? It has great reviews, a lot of people saw it, and it's riffing on that quiet coming of age with a darker twist trend that keeps popping up on the list: Winter's Bone, An Education, Beasts of the Southern Wild, Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close, and Toy Story 3 to name a few. That feels like one of those 5%-ers rallied behind by a passionate group of voters. I feel like I'm in the minority for liking the film but not being blown away by it.
Stoker and Frances Ha should be in the discussion but they're not going to happen at this point. They're too small and weird to crossover enough. But don't worry. I'll be stumping for Stoker all year long in the hopes that I'm not the only person praising it come January in Best of 2013 lists. It's not even my token horror entry (that's Warm Bodies at this point). Stoker is still my number 1 for the year so far.
how are other people going to start putting before midnight on that shortlist if you don't start doing it? come on. let's make it happen.
Heymarki -- that's a good point. Hmmm.
murtada -- thanks. I really feel like the movie isn't earning how moving it is but the context of seeing it. But that's always so weird with movies which becomes big things by basis of external factors. And it works in negative ways too -- i think the movie has a lot of flaws but i've been surprised at some of the vitriol i've heard.
I didn't like this at all. I thought it was poorly written and heavy-handed. All of the characters are paper thin, and Melonie Diaz was pretty awful, IMO.
D+
I thought that Octavia was very amateur in this. This will be another undeserved nomination for her, IMO.
I haven't followed his career at all since, but Jordan's performance was one of the best in the first season of The Wire. Considering how good The Wire's ensemble was, that's a tremendous feat. I can't wait to see what Jordan does here.
That said, Weinstein is an astute businessman. He definitely accounted for the timing of the Zimmerman trial when he picked this film up at Sundance. If Fruitvale Station gins up debate about race and the value of human life in America, I'm not so sure that commercial pandering is such a bad thing.
Minor correction: Fruitvale is in Oakland, not San Francisco, and the neighborhood around Fruitvale has a particularly interesting, and uneasy, history in regards to race and class. I will watch anything Michael B. Jordan is in. He's one of my favorite TV actors.
Guess you didn't like it then. That's disappointing. I'll judge for myself whenever this gets to my hick area of the woods.
The EXTREMECLOSEUP direction was annoying, and the "take the train" line was anvilish, but Michael B. Jordan really shines in this. A tragic story with mistakes made by all involved.