Critic Reviews

• Geoff Berkshire, Variety

  Even if every word of Coogler's account of the last day in Grant's life held up under close scrutiny, the film would still ring false in its relentlessly positive portrayal of its subject.

• Todd McCarthy, Hollywood Reporter

  A shrewd script and career-launching performances drive a tragic modern story that carries heavy social weight.

• Jordan Hoffman, ScreenCrush

  If you aren't choked up at the end, you may have some kind of problem.

• Shaun Munro, Film School Rejects

  An exceptional dramatic feature propelled by strong performances across the board.

• Jessica Kiang, The Playlist

  Fruitvale Station, is impressive for a debut, and displays the unimpeachable intent to involve us all in the human story behind a headline. And it certainly displays great promise from its director and accomplished performances from its cast.

• Xan Brooks, Guardian [UK]

  One has the sense of a man being slowly, surely written back into being.

• Simon Gallagher, What Culture

  Michael Jordan's Grant is remarkably sympathetic, and his story develops in a way that adds an awful note to the opening scene, as the arc creeps slowly and painfully towards the final, fatal moment.

• David D'Arcy, Screen International

  With a sympathetic and not too heavy hand, Fruitvale Station takes its audience through the constant challenges to black family life - poverty, debt, crime, and the prospect that an encounter with the police can have deadly consequences.

• Erik Childress, Film Threat

  A viewer may have a heavy heart in wondering precisely just what was fact and what was fiction but there is little doubt at how emotionally effective Coogler's version of the story actually is.

• Michael Dunaway, Paste Magazine

  If you leave the film with dry eyes, you're a hell of a lot stronger than me, or than anyone in the Eccles theater the night I saw the film.

Read all 10 critic reviews