A gentle, naturalistic drama based on the real-life shooting in 2009 of a 22-year-old man in Oakland, California. First-time African-American director Ryan Coogler (who was 22 when the shooting occurred) clearly wants the life and death of Oscar Grant (Michael B Jordan) to touch us. He works hard to show Grant’s decency. Maybe too hard.
In the last 24 hours of his life, this doting dad expresses a desire to quit selling weed, cradles a dying dog in the street, plans to marry his long-term girlfriend, takes good care of his God-fearing mother and is in regular contact with his granny. Oprah Winfrey gets lots of name-checks and such details feel custom-made to earn a round of applause on her show. The film also has a very sun-dappled, Sundance kind of vibe. It comes as no surprise that Fruitvale Station won the Grand Jury Prize and Audience Award there in 2013.
Leading man Jordan, however, makes up for a lot. Fans of The Wire will remember the actor’s turn as Wallace, the 16-year-old drug dealer who knew his American presidents and liked playing with toys on the sly.
Jordan still has an intensely smart, child-like presence. His Grant is both genuinely insouciant and vaguely neurotic: when his mum (the wonderful Octavia Spencer) cries out that her boy hates to be alone, it makes perfect sense. Jordan doesn’t beg for our sympathy and is all the more magnetic as a result. The finale is devastating.
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