Fruitvale Station

Writer/Director Ryan Coogler’s Fruitvale Station, based on the real-life story of Oscar Grant, a 22-year-old Bay resident, won the Sundance Film Festival Grand Jury Prize for "its skillful realization, its devastating emotional impact and its moral and social urgency."  It also won Sundance’s Audience Award, both deservedly so.

It is powerfully told with a strong cast led by Octavia Spencer as Oscar’s mother Wanda, Michael B. Jordan as Oscar and Melonie Diaz as Oscar’s girlfriend Sophina.

                                                                This film is especially relevant and impactful given the present real-life story in the Florida court.  What becomes clear above all is the profiling that is rampant among both police with badges and wannabe policemen, as well as the fact it’s imperative to keep guns out of the hands of immature real or fake security people.

 Fruitvale Station demonstrates the tragedy, not just of victims of violence, but the emotional lives of people who care about them.  It is, obviously, not a happy story, but it has a nobility that cannot be denied.  I give it a 4 out of 5.