Thursday, December 19, 2013

Fruitvale Station in 200 Words or Less

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At a certain point I just had to look Fruitvale Station in the face and be all, "Will you please hold the damned camera steady?" The needless overkill on the shaky cam aesthetic was typical of the issues I had with the film, which probably slightly outweigh what I liked. It's close to 50/50 - I think everybody performance-wise is very very good (I wish I saw Melanie Diaz in so many more movies than I get to see Melanie Diaz in), only it's in service of a movie that gets a little ham-fisted about itself. I wish the film didn't start with the real footage -it throws off the "this is just a normal day in a guy's life" vibe and underlines and draws a circle of import around moments that bleeds them kind of dry. You can almost see the capital letters affixed to This Is The Last Time He Will See His Daughter, and so many moments like that. For something attempting to be intimate, it's instead kind of smothering.
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2 comments:

Anonymous said...

NO! :-(

I feel like the only person who legitimately loved this movie.

Anonymous said...

For a very flawed film, it made me cry.

-j