Fruitvale Station (1 Viewer)

This Sundance favorite seemed to get a wider release over the weekend and I caught a matinee on Friday. I'm not going to call this a great movie as I think there's a bit too much hype around it but it's certainly worth watching and still extremely good.

I wasn't overly familiar with the actual case so this movie was introducing me to a lot of it. As I've said countless times, I don't go to a movie expecting a documentary so I'm sure many things were changed up for a dramatic purpose. Still, the story of a dead beat trying to go straight but having a head-scratching event with a cop and a gun made for some great drama. The film is 100% depressing from the word go but director Ryan Coogler and star Michael B. Jordon do excellent work throughout. The film really doesn't have a political or racial message beating you over the head, which was a good thing, although I do admit that I got quite nervous watching the film fearing something was going to happen as the crowd started to get pretty worked up at the end.

*** 1/2 (out of 4)

My only gripe with the movie is that it seems unbelievably coincidental that
[BIG SPOILER] That gripe aside the movie is powerful and well acted. Michael B. Jordan (who even as a teen was amazing on The Wire) and Octavia Spencer are both excellent.

Travis-

That bit, from court reports and news reports, is in fact true to how this happened. So, I don't think they could change that.

Then they made the right call to stick with reality. It is indeed a small and strange world.

EDIT: Man, the randomness of that happening and the odds of that happening makes this story even sadder.

As the saying goes...

"Sometimes the truth is stranger..."

One of my favorite movies of the year. Powerful stuff.