![]() Oscar has few outlets, but his girlfriend and daughter and friends and family keep him "lifted up" - a term his mother ( Octavia Spencer) uses when gathering them all to pray for Oscar to survive the bullet that pierced his lung. At least the raging bull Jake LaMotta had the boxing ring. His explosive side stems more from the fact that he shares little of his mental burdens with anyone. But he's been busted before, so another arrest could send him away from his daughter and her mother (the radiant Melonie Diaz) for a good while. He used to sell marijuana to get by, and losing his job at the local supermarket pushes him that much closer to dealing pot again. He's a father worrying about rent, bills and his daughter's schooling. He dresses like a homeboy and blasts his car stereo, but he is no thug. We get so caught up in his world, there's little time to respond to the cultural cues that would indicate to a certain segment of the audience that they're dealing with what " Menace II Society" called "America's nightmare: young, black and don't give a fuck." Writer-director Ryan Coogler simply lets us sample Oscar's daily routine and pressures. Judging by its haunted atmosphere, "Fruitvale Station" knows all that history, and knows better than to confront it, fret over it or wag its finger at it. People who wanted to believe that blacks are inferior and black youth who took these images of aggressive inferiority as the underclass path to success joined hands to keep the dehumanization circus in business into the new century. These images have fed racists, but they've also fed generations of black boys who learned that survival in a country that has little use for them means suppressing "soft" emotions and projecting a confidence that, in black skin, often comes off as arrogance. The pop icons among rap artists, the ones who dine with the corporate elite, promote prison culture, ruthless self-interest and jewelry. When we did get a glimpse of black male intelligence, it tended to be the psychopathic "street smart" variety. The past three decades were about depicting the refurbished, physically potent and powerful black man as a moral and intellectual weakling. Ho'wood spent six decades emasculating and lobotomizing black male characters, then traded on some cheap, crime-based empowerment narratives via blaxploitation. For every complicated, vulnerable, flawed but basically decent black male character or celebrity there are a hundred loud, imbecilic thugs. But consider what pop culture gives us to go on. His death left a giant crater in several lives.įor those of you who understand that young black men are humans, not beasts, it might sound like a silly project to undertake. He cared for many people, and many people cared for him. ![]() I must paraphrase " The Elephant Man" to explain what it all amounts to: Oscar was not an animal. The rest of the film dramatizes what Oscar was up to the day before he was killed, New Year's Eve 2009.
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