Fruitvale Station

The film's title refers to the station in Oakland, California, where unarmed 22-year-old African-American passenger Oscar Grant was shot dead by transport police in 2009. Though one might well expect a dramatised take on the killing to be an explosive, indignant, issue-of-the-week affair, this subtle, affecting movie is a surprisingly low-key character study, drenched in pathos and melancholy. Michael B Jordan (Chronicle) is outstanding as Grant, a small-time drug dealer and ex-jailbird who is waking up to his responsibilities as a son, boyfriend and father of a little girl. Tracing the events of the last 24 hours of Grant's life (some invented, but most of them not), Fruitvale Station doesn't make an easy case for martyrdom but instead provides a rough sketch of a complex man whose life was at a crossroads. The slow pace and foregone conclusion of an ending could prove off-putting for some, but the journey is what's important here. Although it was the violence that made the headlines, this is a moving story about a flawed man who didn't deserve to die so young.