Wow... powerful film. If you don't know, this is the story of Oscar Grant, the 22 year old man murdered by police in 2009. Truthfully, I just watched this because it was written and directed by the man who is writing and directing Creed, and the two also share lead Michael B. Jordan. But wow. This was amazingly well done. It really portrayed Oscar as a flawed but well-meaning character. Many times in movies like this, they romanticize things or gloss over a character's flaws, but this seemed very real. Some scenes in particular got to me--when Oscar's girlfriend, with whom he shares a daughter, knows something has happened but is prevented from finding out by the police, and when Oscar's mom tells her that she should stay positive. That kind of bravery was awesome. In one of the latter scenes, when Oscar dies, they show a clip of him with his daughter, as well as some medical footage, accompanied by silence--no audio. What an amazing directorial choice. It somehow made it even more powerful. I loved also how Oscar's mother sees his dead body, and asks to hug him but cannot--referencing earlier when he was in jail and wanted to hug his mother, but he could not. That little bit was so sweet and sad. The constant reminder to never postpone showing love. Throughout the movie, the girl who played Oscar's daughter was unbelievably good. And the ending, with Oscar's girlfriend trying to figure out how to tell their daughter that her father has died, with the daughter innocently looking up, is so heartbreaking. Powerful. Overall, this story was told so beautifully. If Ryan Coogler tackled this story with such grace, I have no doubt he will do an amazing job with Creed. I know I usually don't write this much for a single movie, but the subject matter of this film seems to warrant a longer response; there are so many things that can go wrong in this kind of film, yet everything here seemed to go right.
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