Fruitvale Station (2013) - Well-meaning issue drama heightened by stars Michael B. Jordan and Octavia Spencer

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The brooding poster for Ryan Coogler's Fruitvale Station

QUICK REVIEW:

Oscar is a young Afro-American father in Oakland, California, who wants to stop selling drugs. On New Year's Eve he and his girlfriend leave his mother's birthday to go to San Francisco, as a dire situation arises.

If you know the basic skeleton of the 2009 true story that is the basis of Fruitvale Station, the feature debut of Oakland-born writer-director Ryan Coogler (The Sculptor (2011), short), a part of the film feels pretty manipulative: For us to grow a deep sense of sympathy for protagonist-lout Oscar, he is made out to be not only sweet to kids and strangers here but also just a great guy around animals, women and gay people.
This does not make the narrative awfully exciting. - Getting into the shoes of a young black man in America, who is trying to better his ways, is, however, and especially because Michael B. Jordan (The Wire (2002), TV-series) is very good in the part.
Fruitvale's other ace is Octavia Spencer (The Help (2011)), who play's Oscar's mother. Coogler has made a speedy rise to big business on top of the hugely successful release of this little independent film: His coming, second film is the 7th Rocky film, Creed (2015), coming out in December, again starring Jordan, here as the son of Apollo Creed, Rocky's opponent in the first two Rocky films.
Fruitvale Station is a good and very pertinent film that addresses a part of a tragic problem in US society. - It is not a party-starter.

Watch the trailer for the film here

Cost: 0.9 mil. $
Box office: 17.3 mil. $
= Huge hit
[Coogler developed his script through the Sundance Screenwriters Lab and gained Forest Whitaker on board as one of the film's producers. Both Jordan and Spencer were also involved in getting the tiny budget to suffice. The film was shot in 20 days in Oakland. SPOILER The climax is shot at the actual location of Grant's death, and real amateur footage from the tragedy is, controversially, included in the film. The film premiered at Sundance, winning the Grand Jury Prize and the Audience Award for Best US Drama. Its distribution rights were secured by The Weinstein Company in a bidding war for 2 mil. $. The film had a very successful run in the US and gained several nominations and awards, great reviews and was on many central Top 10 lists of the year. It grossed 16.1 mil. $ (93 % of the total gross) in North America.]

What do you think of Fruitvale Station?