Fruitvale Station

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Our review of the film is up and I'm posting here mainly because I feel recent events have caused reviews and viewers to become highly wary of saying anything even remotely curious that might raise the racism eyebrow.

The film is decent but it's currently holding over a 90 on RT for both reviewers and viewers. It's simply not that great.

The first hour of the film is just slow, tedious footage of the main character (Oscar Grant) going about his daily business. There's absolutely nothing interesting about it other than to give us some backstory that, actually, goes against what I think the producers wanted us to feel for the final act.

Then we get an amazing final 30 minutes with one huge glaring change that was entirely unnecessary to tell this true-life story.

I'm really growing concerned that concerns about racism is taking hold on film reviews these days. Don't get me wrong, this is a decent movie. It's just not the nearly flawless film it's being portrayed as.
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Finished here. It's been fun.
Thanks for the review. I really want to watch this film soon but it does appear that they make Oscar a almost Martyr like character, when in reality he was a thug.Maybe I'm wrong, but i want this film to show him as a morally grey/morally ambiguous type of character.What rating do you give this film?



They did make him out fairly thug-ish. If anything it worked against the grain of what the narrative was that they seemed to want to portray everywhere else. I gave it a 3.5 out of 5.



Finished here. It's been fun.
Nice. I'll be sure to check this one out soon then.



Really good film. Michael B. Jordan will break out into a star (I hope) with his performance here. The film will make you angry, which is what the purpose was I suppose.



In all honesty, it didn't make me angry and I think that's what they were going for and that's why I didn't find it to be as impressive as others did. I think they portrayed Oscar in a way that made it seem as if the film presented a rose-colored version of events (certainly nothing new to Hollywood if so) and that we don't have the full story. The fact that they changed a MAJOR fact that seriously impacts your perspective only underscores my concern greatly.



Finished here. It's been fun.
I liked this film but I feel the movie tried too hard in being dramatic and one scene stuck out as being very,very cheap. The dog scene. It seems that the director added in scenes that never really happened just for the sake of us emphasizing more with Oscar. I mean Michael B. Jordan was great, but a part of me feels this movie is forced.I give it around a 7.3/10.



SPOILER ALERT:

I've mentioned a few times that they changed a major fact that really impacted the film and if they were going to change that scene there's little doubt of their ability and desire to change any number of lesser scenes. In this case it involved the handcuffs. Check the real story and you'll see it flat-out didn't happen as presented Oscar wasn't cuffed. However, cuffing him there really drives up the drama and the disgust in the viewer. The problem is, it also paints a much different picture of the officers than reality.

Don't get me wrong, what happened was a travesty and it was wrong but it didn't need the embellishment.



It's hollywood... Obviously some things are going to be fabricated. Name a movie based on a true story that was told exactly the way it happened. I can't think of any.

I thought it was a great movie. Ryan Coogler is extremely talented and is going to become the next big director of his generation. Michael B. Jordan was a boss as always. Looking forward to Creed!