Before Sinners, Ryan Coogler’s Best Movie Was A Harrowing Story Starring Michael B. Jordan
Warning: SPOILERS for Sinners and Fruitvale Station.
Although Sinners is currently hailed as Ryan Coogler’s best film, the director previously had another prominent hit also starring Michael B. Jordan. From the opening logos to Sinners’ ending, director Ryan Coogler’s newest horror film takes viewers on a ride that challenges their emotions in a number of unexpected ways. It’s certainly more than your average vampire flick, and Sinners’ box office has thus far accurately reflected as much. Even those that typically stay away from horror films might still appreciate it for its period flair and deeply complex relationship dynamics.
These things are accurately reflected by the overwhelming quantity of Sinners’ positive reviews, which have only grown in number since the film’s wider theatrical release. But Ryan Coogler was an acclaimed director well before he even began scripting Sinners, and it’s one of his earliest works that makes the clearest case as to why. Outside of Creed and the two Black Panther movies he’s done to date, Coogler’s first and only theatrical feature was Fruitvale Station, which also stars Jordan like all the others. From a certain perspective, it remains the hardest-hitting film he’s ever made.
Fruitvale Station Was A Tragic Movie About Oscar Grant
A Hard-To-Stomach Tale That Deserved To Be Told
It’s hard to maintain suspense in a movie based on a true story, since the audience already knows the ending. But that’s what Ryan Coogler accomplished by opening Fruitvale Station with the real-life footage of Oscar Grant’s fatal shooting by a Bay Area Rapid Transit officer in 2009. While Ryan Coogler’s inspirations for Sinners ranged from animated films to family stories, Fruitvale Station is based on a story that’s unfortunately been told numerous times over the course of history. Nonetheless, it’s sadly a story that sometimes still needs to be heard.
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As opposed to Hailee Steinfeld’s character in Sinners, Oscar didn’t become a villain on the day his fate was sealed. Fruitvale Station shows him leaving his criminal life of drug dealing behind. He spends the day trying to regain his job, wishing his mother a happy birthday, and spending quality time with his daughter. But because of how Coogler opens the film, each of these seemingly uplifting events is overshadowed by the knowledge that Oscar will never be given a chance to pay them off. That makes the film ten times more tragic than anything in Coogler’s vampire movie.
Why Fruitvale Station Is Ryan Coogler’s Best Movie
The Performances Alone Are Devastatingly Impactful
Against the sheer number of everyone who dies in Sinners, Coogler’s Fruitvale Station only needs one death to stop time. Even knowing Oscar’s fate beforehand, his murder somehow elicits less drama than watching others react to it. Octavia Spencer breaks hearts as Oscar’s mother, who maintains an eerie calm suggesting she’s both unsurprised by the cops’ actions and tragically aware that prayer’s all she has left. Meanwhile, Melonie Diaz adds panic to the scene as the first responders refuse to tell her what happened to her daughter’s father. Coogler clearly knows how to get the most out of his actors.
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These performances carry the film well enough on their own, but Ryan Coogler adds his own flair to the movie that enhances the gravity of its tragic plot. One particularly notable choice is when he films Oscar falling face-down on the ground while wrestling the family children. It’s immediately apparent to anyone who knows film structure that this shot composition will ultimately be repeated after the BART officer pulls the trigger against Oscar, but even that prior knowledge doesn’t detract from the effectiveness of the scene. Fruitvale Station may just be the most precisely crafted film Coogler’s made.
Fruitvale Station Launched A Long-Running Collaboration Between Coogler & Michael B. Jordan
The Actor Has Been In All Of Coogler’s Features To Date
Coogler had reportedly already eyed Jordan for the role of Oscar Grant, but there’s no denying that working together on Fruitvale Station forged a profitable alliance between the two. They immediately shot to franchise fame when Coogler next cast Jordan in Creed as well as both Black Panther movies. Jordan now plays twins in Sinners, which is quickly becoming regarded as one of Michael B. Jordan’s best movies thus far. But Fruitvale Station remains one of his most important, if for nothing else than the end reveal that Oscar was only 22 at the time of his death.
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Oscar’s never depicted as a saint. His strengths and flaws are laid side by side, but there lingers the heavy realization that none of his flaws justified the loss of his future. And the end of the film, in which his girlfriend is faced with how to tell their daughter that Daddy’s never coming home again, is the most heart-wrenching final shot of Coogler’s career. Although many will ultimately say the same of Sinners, Coogler shows with Fruitvale Station just what he can accomplish when he films a story that truly touches him deeply.
