Susan Granger’s review of “Fruitvale Station” (The Weinstein Company)
Simply called “Fruitvale” when it won both the Audience Award and Grand Jury Prize at Sundance earlier this year, this low-budget, documentary-like feature also impressed audiences at the Cannes Film Festival.
It’s a true story about the last day in the life of Oscar Grant, a 22 year-old African-American who was fatally shot in the San Francisco Bay area by a BART transit police officer in the early hours of New Year’s Day, 2009. Unarmed Grant was shot in the back while lying, handcuffed and prone, on the floor of Oakland’s Fruitvale metro stop – all filmed by dozens of cell phones. When the officer was charged with murder, his defense was that he mistook his gun for his taser. After a jury convicted him of involuntary manslaughter, protests and riots broke out.
In July, 2012, shortly before 26 year-old writer/director Ryan Coogler began filming, Trayvon Martin, an African-American, was shot by a community watch member – making the outrage of “Fruitvale Station” all the more relevant to Michael B. Jordan (“The Wire,” “Friday Night Lights”), as Oscar Grant; Octavia Spencer (Oscar winner for “The Help”), as Oscar’s mother; and Forest Whitaker, as producer.
Problem is: Coogler’s device of compressing so much positivity about Grant, a convicted felon, into ashort, foreboding time period. We see him dutifully obeying his mother’s dictum
that he use a hands-free device while driving AND coping with his girlfriend
(Melonie Diaz) AND refusing to sell drugs AND tending a stray dog that’s been
hit by a car AND helping a stranger (Ahna O’Reilly) choose which fish to fry by
calling his grandmother (Marjorie Shears) from the market AND convincing a
grocery store owner to re-open so two women can use the bathroom AND reassuring
his four year-old daughter (Ariana Neal) about the sounds of gunfire, promising
he’ll take her to Chuck E. Cheese, AND, finally, being goaded into fighting on
the train by New Year’s Eve revelers.
On the Granger Movie Gauge of 1 to 10, “Fruitvale Station” is a significant 7. It’s compelling 
and exasperating.