Ryan McNeil
We’re supposed to screw up when we’re young, that’s part of the advantage of being young. Those years come with an excuse that becomes a safety net, and if we’re really lucky, we’re insulated by supportive people who will pick us up when we fall from our own stupidity. Eventually though, a moment arrives in our youth when we need to say “enough is enough”. We need to stop acting like kids, and look at the way our mistakes are affecting the people around us who care about us.
The trick is to seize that moment before too much damage is done…and even then, too much damage might already be done.
FRUITVALE STATION is the story of Oscar Grant (Michael B. Jordan). As the film begins, we see cell-phone-captured footage of a New Year’s Eve event involving Grant. We then spend the next hour leading up to that moment.
Grant is a man who has a lot of issues to sort out. As we begin the day, we understand that his relationship with his girlfriend Sophina (Melonie Diaz) isn’t rock-solid at the moment. Sophina alludes to Grant being unfaithful, prompting him to respond that it’s all in the past. We sense a tension between them, but also a resolve to make things work.
A few hours later, we go with Grant to the supermarket he works at. On this day, he’s a customer, buying food for his mother’s birthday dinner that night. However, we soon learn that a customer is all Grant will ever be in this supermarket going forward, since he was fired two weeks ago. As he confronts his boss, he seems both contrite and desperate. He knows that he screwed up and is looking for another chance. He might eventually get another chance, but it won’t be at this store. His boss informs him that his position has been filled.
With so much going wrong, it’s hard to believe anything could be going right for Grant. However, that’s the role his daughter Tatiana (Ariana Neal) fills in his life. He might have a lot of issues that need sorting out, but the one thing he has going for him is that he is a loving father of an adoring daughter. Grant is Tatiana’s hero, and he has an easy way with her that seems to settle in the sweet spot between parent and pal. Upon seeing father and daughter together, one hopes that it can be the inspiration for him to get his act together.
We hope for this, because in flashback we are exposed to just how badly Oscar Grant has screwed up. At 22, he has already done time in prison, and his sentence put a strain on his relationship with his mother Wanda (Octavia Spencer). She wants nothing more than to be a rock for her son, but also sees that the threat of removing that rock might do him more good. As we watch the two interact in the present, it’s clear that both have learned a lot from their strained past.
All of this leads to December 31st, 2008…when Grant and his friends take the subway to celebrate New Year’s in San Francisco, and a life-changing incident occurs.
This incident that serves as the root of FRUITVALE STATION is one that I don’t wish to reveal, though the film is based on a real event so a simple Google search of “Oscar Grant” would likewise provide spoilers.
The reason I choose not to reveal it is in honour of the film’s construction. FRUITVALE STATION begins with cellphone footage of the moment in question. It dares to tip its hand right from the start, and then spend an hour getting back there. It doesn’t do so in an ambiguous way, or a cheeky manner that makes one question what is on-screen. It begins with the end – a decision that could sink a lesser film.
Amazingly, when it finally gets back to that moment, the impact is every bit as brutal as if it had been a complete surprise.
The knock against FRUITVALE STATION is that it’s emotionally manipulative. Some say that it takes a real-life tragedy and leads up to it with events and moments that build pathos and lionize the central character. These events and moments might not have happened, but they stoke the fire for the film’s eventual pay-off. While it’s true that the film has been constructed to drive home its message, I wouldn’t say that makes for full-on manipulation. In lieu of recounting an event, it’s trying to tell a story. To tell this story, it wants to add texture to a real-life tragedy, which isn’t the same as manipulating the audience. It’s no more manipulative that claiming two star-crossed lovers met on The Titanic.
Even without brushstrokes like Oscar’s encounter with an injured pitbull, or the implication that he’d no longer be selling weed (both fictional), the centre of the story still holds. FRUITVALE STATION wants us to believe that Oscar’s course had not yet been set, and that at 22, there was still enough time left on the clock for him to become a good partner, a strong father, and a better man. By the time we arrive at the climax, we do believe those things because they are indeed possible. Many people have had lives begin the way Oscar’s begins, and many people have gone on to achieve good things despite it. All it takes is one moment of clarity, and as we watch FRUITVALE STATION, we believe we are bearing witness to just such a moment.
It’s a moment built on patience and will – a moment that many people will have in many different forms throughout their life. It’s an instant where one looks around and says “I can do better”. “Better” might be drastic, or it might be subtle, but getting there always takes a great deal of fortitude. This moment that many of us encounter is a direct contrast to the ultimate payoff of this film. In that moment, both Oscar and the BART officer he encounters surrender to instinct and fear. There is no sign of fortitude, only confusion, tension, and panic.
Every decision we’ve seen Oscar make up until now has required a high degree of desire and grace. This moment is completely devoid of desire and grace, and it will cost everybody involved dearly.
Ryan Coogler has created a beautiful film that wants us to think about consequences. It believes that we should be able to make mistakes, and not have to pay for those mistakes with blood. What we witness is a prayer; that all may find the strength to overcome their moments of weakness, and that all may do so without their past misdeeds ruining their work for a better future.
FRUITVALE STATION is devastating and beautiful, and is quite simply one of the best films you will see this year.
It’s always a little weird how often real-life events and that year’s movies seem to coalesce into a talking point.
I hear you – feels even more immediate here in Toronto because an incident something like Oscar’s just took place.
Beautiful review. I haven’t seen the film yet but I appreciate your thoughts on it, and will definitely be checking it out soon.
Hopefully you get a chance to see it before too long. Definitely a much needed tonic after all the cheeseburgers we’ve been fed this summer.