Director Ryan Coogler
Starring Michael B. Jordan, Melonie Diaz, Octavia Spencer
Rated M
Score 4/6

The purportedly true story of Oscar Grant III, a 22-year-old Bay Area resident, who crosses paths with friends, enemies, family, and strangers on the last day of 2008.

For the record this movie is based on the BART Police shooting of Oscar Grant on New Year’s Day 2009. I for one was completely unaware of Mr Grant’s story until I watched this movie, I suppose the only way that you would be aware of his story would be if you lived in the Bay Area or where really paying attention to the news in the USA.
This was director Ryan Coogler’s first feature film and I thought that it was an interesting move by Coogler to use actual amateur footage of the shooting, it really grabbed my attention at the beginning of the movie. With the use of the amateur footage you kind of knew the way the story was going to go from minute one but the age old idiom ‘it’s about the journey not the destination’ really rings true here. Coogler delivered a great first movie.
There were a lot of actors cast in this that I was very unfamiliar with though personally I was very impressed with Melanie Diaz’s great performance. I was vaguely familiar with Michael B. Jordan’s work though it has been a few years since I have actually watched a movie that he was in.
It should be noted that what could be described as a reverse Dragnet rule was used considering that the names of the officers who were involved in the shooting were changed for the film.