Stars: Michael B. Jordan, Melonie Diaz, Octavia Spencer, Kevin Durand
In the wee hours of New Year’s Day 2009, Oscar Grant was gunned down by a transit police officer in Oakland, Calif. Grant was a young, unarmed black man; the officer, Johannes Mehserle, was white. The incident polarized the community. Fruitvale Station focuses on Grant’s life, his activities on the last day of his life, and explores the 22-year-old’s relationships with his friends and family. In other words, it shows him as more than just a victim. It’s still difficult to fathom how a night of fun went from ringing in the New Year and watching fireworks, to the destruction of a human life on a BART station platform. –p.d. lee
