I think so many people are focusing on the “importance” (a tricky and subjective word) of this film that they’re really missing out on the film’s true message: the banality of racial tragedy. Obviously, that’s given added meaning in the days sense the Zimmerman trial verdict.
What Works: Oscar Grant (played by Chronicle/Parenthood’s Michael B. Jordan, who is no stranger to playing affable guys caught up in circumstances beyond their control), the real-life San Francisco native who was killed by police on a New Year’s Eve a few years ago, is just a regular guy. The film follows his last day on Earth and for a long time we’re almost shocked at how mundane it is. Grant fools around with his baby mama, he tries to sell a bag of weed, he begs for his job back at a grocery store, and gets in several good scenes with the true love of his life, his mother, played by The Help’s Octavia Spencer with heartbreaking layers of vulnerability and exhaustion. The film’s tone is so “slice of life” that I could sense some audience members thinking “This is it? This is the film critics have been raving about?” This is all just softening us for the (senseless) kill, so that it stuns more when it does come. It’s also meant to humanize someone who was just turned into one more media talking point for both “sides” in the aftermath. The film’s real argument seems to be that it’s a shame there are even sides.
What Doesn’t Work: I’ll have to admit that the slice-of-life feel of Fruitvale can make the story feel deliberately small, and I understand why, but it’s an experiment that’s a little easier to admire than truly enjoy. I really do think this is a great film and would easily call it one of the best of summer, but if other audience members felt it a little too controlled, obvious (the foreshadowing of Oscar not wanting to go out while everyone around him does feels a little forced), or self-conscious, I couldn’t really argue with that either.
What I Would Have Done Differently: The film’s refusal to make larger statements about police shootings and the lives of young black men in general is perhaps a little frustrating but is also perhaps the ultimate statement. By not taking a more impassioned/furious (and, in some ways, easier) route, the filmmaker may be letting the issues breathe just enough to see the humans beneath them. I’m not sure I would have gone the same direction, but it’s not a clear-cut choice as to which one is better.