Cannes Film Festival – Un Certain Regard
“Fruitvale Station” makes no attempts to hide its bleak ending; before anything else, writer/director Ryan Coogler shows us the real-life death of the protagonist, Oscar Grant, as caught by a grainy cell phone camera. Then we rewind the clock a day, and Michael B. Jordan assumes the role of Grant, a man with nobility and flaws just like any of us.
For an hour, Coogler walks us through the last day in his life. It’s a poignant and well observed slice-of-life punctuated by Jordan’s great moments of humanity. Yet without the knowledge that we’re witnessing a series of last moments in Grant’s life, the drama is essentially inconsequential.
Essentially dependent on dramatic irony for propulsion, the majority of “Fruitvale Station” feels like an average movie able to get away with not aiming for much. But then, the inevitable conclusion arrives, and we’re faced with an incident of horrifying police brutality that claims Grant’s life (it’s hardly a spoiler, so get over it). The emotionally charged moment is gripping and tense, enough to feel twice as long as the rest of the film.
Marshall and the Movies 
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