Fruitvale Station (2013)
Directed by Ryan Coogler
Oakland, California. Young Afro-American Oscar Grant crosses paths with family members, friends, enemies and strangers before facing his fate on the platform at Fruitvale Station, in the early morning hours of New Year's Day 2009.
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What critics compared Fruitvale Station to
At the movies, horrible real-life events (whether directly inspired or not) often come in the form of searing dramas like Do the Right Thing, Elephant or United 93, which in their own ways all try to make sense of tragedy.
Spike Lee’s incendiary Do The Right Thing left its indelible mark on the cinematic landscape in 1989, eerily predicting the L.A. riots of 1992.
(The two previously collaborated on the essential, and underrated, 2013 drama "Fruitvale Station.")
With his “Rocky” spinoff, “ Creed ,” writer-director Ryan Coogler confirms every bit of promise he displayed in his 2013 debut, “Fruitvale Station,” offering a smart, kinetic, exhilaratingly well-crafted piece of mainstream filmmaking, and providing actor Michael B. Jordan with yet another substantial stepping stone on his climb to stardom.
And Coogler, riding a wave of success following his debut (“Fruitvale Station”), put his creativity in the service of another artist’s characters.
Two years ago, its director, Ryan Coogler, collaborated with Jordan on Fruitvale Station, which depicted the senseless death of a 22-year-old black man named Oscar Grant at the hands of a Bay Area policeman.
This stirring, heartfelt, rough-grained reboot of the “Rocky” series is the brainchild of Ryan Coogler (“Fruitvale Station”), who directed, wrote the story, and co-wrote the script with Aaron Covington.
But director Ryan Coogler (who previously teamed with Jordan for 2013’s fantastic Fruitvale Station ) forgoes scenes of drinking raw eggs and meat-locker boxing, instead helming the movie like any true prodigy would — by making Creed distinctly his own.
Jordan is best known for parts in TV series that approach race and the perils of inner city life head-on: He was Wallace, a teenaged drug dealer in The Wire; and Vince Howard, a high school quarterback with a history of delinquency in Friday Night Lights. 1 In a recent interview , Jordan recalled the way he felt when he first learned about Grant’s shooting: “It could’ve been me.
Nicely played by Michael B. Jordan, who did excellent work as a star quarterback in the later seasons of Friday Night Lights , Grant is first shown trying to rebuild trust with his girlfriend Sophina (Melonie Diaz) after an earlier affair.
Any concern that Coogler might have set out to sanctify him are dispelled in the opening scene, in which Oscar (Michael B. Jordan of “The Wire” and “Friday Night Lights”) is confronted by his girlfriend Sophina (Melonie Diaz) about having been caught in an affair — before being interrupted by the arrival of their daughter Tatiana (Ariana Neal).
“ Dope ,” an exuberant coming-of-age comedy that beguiled audiences at Sundance earlier this year, engages the issues of race, identity and authenticity currently aswirl in the culture much in the way that Ryan Coogler’s 2013 Sundance hit “ Fruitvale Station ” eerily echoed the Trayvon Martin story that was dominating headlines when it came out.
Dope lands in a middle-ground of sorts, wherein the colorful LA setting (vibrantly shot by Fruitvale Station cinematographer, Rachel Morrison) is always dynamic and fluid, alternating between funny, sad and scary depictions with a rhythm that is mostly (but not always) controlled and steady.
Like Fruitvale Station, the film was produced by Forest Whitaker (who also cameos as the narrator) and shot by Rachel Morrison, with the latter's dynamic camera work adding energy, color and verve.
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There was no big selling-out hoo-ha when Ryan Coogler, who made his name with the powerful indie “Fruitvale Station,” graduated to “Creed” and “Black Panther.”
Article content They include Jon Watts ( Cop Car , three Spider-Mans ), Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck ( Half Nelson, Captain Marvel ), Ryan Coogler ( Fruitvale Station , two Black Panthers ) and Kenneth Branagh (just kidding).
That’s how the directors of antihero black comedy Super, schoolroom drama Half Nelson, racial meditation Fruitvale Station, Cannes-favored romance Somersault, and lo-fi adoption drama Short Term 12 have all ended up with blockbusters.
Entre ellos se encuentran aquellos que uno no asociaría con las adaptaciones de cómics a primera vista, ya sea el experto en terror Scott Derrickson (Sinister, Doctor Strange) o Ryan Coogler (Fruitvale Station, Black Panther), especializado en dramas sociales.
You’d expect no less from director Ryan Coogler, who opens the film in 1992 in Oakland, a few stops down the BART line from the site of the tragic climax of his debut feature, Fruitvale Station .
His passion, strong connection with material, humanity, humor, smarts, wised-up worldview and insistence on characters and relationships over plot mechanics jumped right out at us in his award-worthy Fruitvale Station and Rocky movie reinvention Creed.
Ryan Coogler has done something fantastic with the creation of Black Panther's settings, as he effortlessly balances darker and grittier urban environments (a skill he already established with Fruitvale Station and Creed) with the more outlandish sets of Wakanda.
Coogler, 31, has proved his skills behind the camera with Fruitvale Station and Creed, but in Black Panther he journeys into the heart of Africa to bring a new world to the screen.
With Creed and Fruitvale Station, Coogler has proven adept at tugging at moviegoers’ heartstrings, and he doesn’t let up just because he’s in a bigger playground.
Wakanda is fictional, vibrantly brought to the big screen by writer/director Ryan Coogler (Creed, Fruitvale Station) and his co-writer Joe Robert Cole, drawing on decades of Marvel Comics mythos.
This includes popular and critical successes like Ryan Coogler’s Fruitvale Station and Creed , Ava DuVernay’s Selma , Denzel Washington’s adaptation of Fences , and 12 Years a Slave , but also the scandalous rise and fall of Nate Parker’s ambitious Birth of a Nation , the restoration of Richard Wright’s Native Son film, the discoveries of Kathleen Collins’s Losing Ground and of the teenage avant-garde filmmaker Edward Owens, and the release of the scholarly, multi-disc box set Pioneers of African American Cinema .
As with Fruitvale Station this is as much about community as individuals, and how one becomes the other.
Considering the reception and success of Coogler’s previous films like Creed, Fruitvale Station, and the Black Panther sequels for Marvel Studios…
…something largely absent since Fruitvale Station…
After both stunned independent movie theaters with 2013's "Fruitvale Station," the two have continued their takeover of blockbuster audiences with "Creed" and "Black Panther."
With a track record of Creed, Black Panther, and Fruitvale Station on their resume, the “Scorsese & De Niro” comparisons are valid.
…he had already sent warning shots to the industry with Fruitvale Station and Creed.
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Forest Whitaker has been an integral part of this black filmmaking renaissance, producing Ryan Coogler‘s Fruitvale Station, Rick Famuyiwa‘s Dope, and Sorry To Bother You, among other prominent projects.
From 2013’s Fruitvale Station and the powerful documentary The Force to the upcoming Blindspotting and the American sequences in Black Panther, Oakland is portrayed as both a place bursting with energy and vitality, but also a city whose changing face is at the center of a great deal of strife.
He co-writes the script with producer turned writer Sev Ohanian (see “Fruitvale Station”).