Oscar snub Fruitvale Station

I agree that Fruitvale Station was unjustifiably snubbed for Oscar consideration, no doubt in part because it was released earlier in the year but also because it's not a bold and star-studded and long as some of the other bloated contenders. It's a fine and scary movie that everyone should see - only 90 minutes, written with concision and acted with understated grace, especially by the lead, Michael B. Jordan. Unlike the very loosely fact-based American Hustle, this movie seems to be about as close to a documentary re-creation of events as it could be: it tells the story of one night, when the police pulled some guys off a BART train in Oakland and, after some ruckus, shot one of them to death - an act of police violence captured on many phone video-cams, as hundreds watched the confrontation from the BART train held in the station. The film smartly begins with what certainly appears to be one of the real video clips, then springs back into the life of the main character, Oscar, and we see his sometimes difficult relations with girlfriend, daughter, mother, ex-boss, and others - the movie shows him as a young man with a troubled past who's trying, with only some success, to come clean. Now every reporter and former reporter knows that this is always the case when a gang member dies in battle - the survivors tell a story of how he was trying to come clean, overcome his demons, etc. The film accepts that, but in no way glorifies or sanctifies Oscar (what an ironic name, as it turns out) - we see his problems and misbehavior as well as his acts of kindness and his general good nature. Whether he provoked the subway fight that led to his arrest and death - the movie's not too clear about that and we'll never really know and it doesn't much matter. The movie comes in at about 90 minutes tops, a very watchable length - has a simple and tragic story to tell and does so without a hitch.