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Fruitvale Station | 2013 | R | - 6.7.10

Based on the real events of January 1, 2009, when Oscar (Michael B. Jordan) a 22-year-old Bay Area resident was shot by police officers in a subway station. Also with Melonie Diax, Octavia Spencer, Kevin Durand and Chad Michael Murray. Directed by Ryan Coogler. [1:30]

SEX/NUDITY 6 - We see a young woman wearing a bra and boy-short style underwear (cleavage and bare abdomen are visible) as a young man watches her; the young woman makes a remark that implies that the young man is having an affair and the young man disregards the young woman's remark; they kiss passionately, the young man lifting her up and pressing her against a wall as he kisses her, they recline on a bed, the young woman pulling off the young man's shirt (we see his bare back) and sex is implied.
 A shirtless young man climbs on top of a young woman wearing brief-style underwear and a T-shirt; he tries to kiss the young woman, she pushes him away and accuses him of cheating on her; after some discussion, the young man climbs back on top of the young woman and they kiss passionately until they are interrupted by a knock on the door.
 We see a subway car filled with people and several couples kiss, including two young women, while two young men stare at the young women kissing and one begins to film them and make catcalls. On multiple occasions, we see a young man kiss another young man. A young man kisses a young woman's neck as she tries to turn away, and he continues kissing her and jokes that her neck "tastes salty." A young man kisses a young woman on the forehead. A young man grabs a young woman's buttocks lovingly. A young man puts his arms around a young woman's shoulders. A young man in bed and shirtless, and wraps his arms around his daughter who is in between him and his girlfriend wearing brief-style underwear; they fall asleep on the bed together.
 A young man makes a pass at a young woman until the young woman tells the young man that she is gay; the young man then jokingly tells the young woman that he is also gay with another young man and a third young man chimes in and jokes that they are gay. A young man ogles a young woman. A young man jokes with another young man that he is going to "bust a move" and flirt with a young woman. A young woman accuses her boyfriend of cheating on her.
 As part of a police intake, we see a young man, fully nude (his bare chest and the profile of his bare buttocks) is seen bending over in front of a police officer; it is implied that the officer is spreading the young man's buttocks apart as part of an examination and the young man stands up (we see his bare buttocks in profile). We see a young man in the shower and we see his bare chest and a portion of his bare back. We see a young woman in the shower with her daughter (no nudity is visible).


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VIOLENCE/GORE 7 - Two police officers grab a young man from a train and shove him against a wall, another officer grabs another young man and pushes and drags him to the ground, another officer grabs a young man and tries to push him against a wall in a sitting position and the young man shouts and fights back, and another young man is then grabbed and shoved to join the others; one of the officers pulls out a taser, aims it at one young man while screaming at him and the young men begin to shout back; one of the young men tells the other young men to calm down as the officer levels the taser at the young man's chest and the young man peacefully says that he is not protesting; one officer instructs the other officers to handcuff two of the young men when the young man talking raises his voice slightly and an officer screams racial slurs and threats at the young man; an officer grabs the young man and pushes him to the ground, the young man tells the officer that there is no reason to arrest him, the officer gets support from two other officers as one pins the young man to the ground, face-down, with his knee and the second officer pulls out his gun and shoots the young man; the incident is being filmed by people on a subway, who act shocked and the officers drag two of the young men away in handcuffs and one officer approaches the train and shouts; we see blood coming from the victim's mouth, he coughs, more blood comes from his mouth, an officer releases the young man's handcuffs and flips him over as the young man looks at the officer and says, "You shot me" (a pool of blood forms under the young man's body); an EMT arrives and tries to rouse the young man, cutting off his clothing before he is taken away on a gurney and raced away in an ambulance and a young woman they pass shouts, "Did you kill him?"; we then see the young man, unconscious, on an operating table with blood coming from tubes in his chest and a doctor digs into a hole to pull out a bloody bullet; the young man is seen hooked up to ventilators, we see bags of blood transfusions being hooked up and within hours he dies; a doctor removes a bandage from the young man's chest and a person picks up a blood transfusion bag and throws it away.
 We see grainy cell phone footage of the following: Three police officers grab a young man sitting on the ground with his back to a wall while two other young men are sitting next to him and we hear shouting and a series of profanities, the young man is shoved to the ground and one of the officers grabs his gun and shoots the young man in the back (no blood is visible).
 We hear a thump and a squeal of car tires; a young man runs after a car, shouting at the driver then turns and sees a dog in the street, dying in a pool of blood; the young man pulls the dying dog into his arms and holds and pets it as it dies (we see blood on the dog's mouth, neck and the young man's shirt has blood on it from holding the dog); the young man's daughter later asks what the blood is from and the young man explains it away, saying it was "from work."
 A man approaches a young man and shouts at him; the young man lunges at the man, they begin to fight with punches and the young man is thrown to the ground (they are on a crowded subway car); the man along with four other men begin to kick the young man until the train comes to a stop and the men race off the train and the young man stands up and tries to shake himself off.
 A doctor tells a woman that her son died and the woman cries and tells the man that she wants to see him; the doctor advises the woman that she cannot touch her son, as his death has been ruled a homicide and we see the woman led to a window, where she sees a sheet covering a body; the sheet is pulled back and we see a dead young man with blood on his face and a gunshot wound in his chest. A doctor tells a woman and a young woman that the woman's son was shot and had massive internal bleeding and had to have a lung removed; the woman is upset and tries to calm a crowd of shouting young men and a young woman at her side.
 A young man is seen in jail with a bruise on his cheek and his mother asks the young man what the bruise was from and the young man ignores her question; a man approaches the young man and his mother and shouts a series of threats and slurs and the young man then shouts at his mother causing the woman to leave abruptly and the young man chases her, shouting; a police officer shouts at the young man to stand still, the young man continues to walk shoving past the officer and four additional officers grab the young man and restrain him, and he tries to fight back, continuing to shout and struggle against the officers.
 A young man grabs a man's arm and jerks him around, then angrily whisper-shouts at him, accusing the man of forcing him to go back to selling drugs.
 A young woman is scared when she hears a gunshot and she calls a woman and tells her that she believes that the woman's son has been shot with a beanbag; then the young woman calls the woman as EMTs cart the young man past her, and the young woman tells the woman that her son has been shot. We see a young man being led into a police cruiser, handcuffed, shout to a young woman that the young woman's boyfriend had been shot. A young woman shouts at a young man, the young man shouts back and they reconcile quickly. The young woman then playfully says, "I could slap you right now" and they kiss (please see the Sex/Nudity category for more details).
 We see an end note on the screen, that a police officer was arrested and charged with the murder of a young man he shot; the police officer claims he thought he had pulled out his taser and shot him accidentally; we then see that the man was convicted of second degree murder and sentenced to two years in prison but was released after 11 months.
 A girl tells a young man (her father) that she cannot sleep and is scared because she hears "gunshots" outside, the young man reassures her that they are firecrackers and that she is safe. A man tells a young man that he has stolen the ring that became his now-wife's engagement ring when he was younger. A young woman dramatically tells a young man that she would "rather die" than go to a workplace on her day off. A young man teases his daughter, saying that her teeth will fall out if she does not brush them. A girl yelps "ouch!" when her father play-bites her feet.
 A young man asks a man if two young women can use his business' bathroom, the young man half-jokingly remarks that if the man does not allow them to use the bathroom that he will come back to his business and have urine covering the outside. We see a young man and a girl (his daughter) brushing their teeth and we hear the sound of spitting.

LANGUAGE 10 - About 59 F-words and its derivatives, 4 sexual references, 52 scatological terms, 16 anatomical terms (1 mild), 30 mild obscenities, 32 derogatory racial terms, name-calling (screw-up, liar, cheater, insane, dumb [anatomical term deleted], trippy), 2 religious exclamations (God).

SUBSTANCE USE - Throughout the movie we see men and women smoking marijuana cigarettes, a young man is seen carrying a large bag of marijuana and dumping it into the ocean, a young man discusses selling marijuana, a young man has a telephone conversation with another man who is going to be buying marijuana and when the two see one another the man gives the young man a small bag of marijuana and a marijuana joint (the man smokes it), a young man tells his girlfriend that he is going to "stop selling trees" (marijuana), a young woman makes a remark to a young man that he needs to "stop smoking weed" in a car before they pick up their daughter. Young men and young women drink liquor from bottles while in a train station and on a train, a young man drinks from a flask, we see men and women in a crowd with what are presumed to be cocktails in red cups, a woman warns a young man (her son) not to drink and drive and the young man responds by saying that he does not drink, a young man teases a young woman by saying "we gonna get drunk" when the young man asks the young woman what she wants to do.

DISCUSSION TOPICS - Racial discrimination, police violence, racial tensions, murder, revenge, regret, overcoming personal obstacles,

MESSAGE - Movies base on real stories are very moving.

CAVEATS

Be aware that while we do our best to avoid spoilers it is impossible to disguise all details and some may reveal crucial plot elements.

We've gone through several editorial changes since we started covering films in 1992 and older reviews are not as complete & accurate as recent ones; we plan to revisit and correct older reviews as resources and time permits.

Our ratings and reviews are based on the theatrically-released versions of films; on video there are often Unrated, Special, Director's Cut or Extended versions, (usually accurately labelled but sometimes mislabeled) released that contain additional content, which we did not review.


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