Jon Newton Fruitvale Station

Fruitvale Station portrays [let's go present tense, active voice; give a real sense of urgency] an urban lifestyle in the Bay Area. Oscar Grant [a real person, here portrayed by the excellent Michael B. Jordan] was a troubled man at the beginning of this movie as he stops showing up to work, sold drugs [here you shift tenses; stops is present while sold is past], and been in and out of prison. He was living a lifestyle that wasn't leading [wasn't or was?] him to death or prison. That type of lifestyle would've had a bad effect on his entire family. One thing this movie had done [does] a great job of showing was the effect that his mother, girlfriend, and daughter had on his life. Once he had noticed how they were effected by his gangster life he quickly noticed that he had to make a change and make it quickly [Excellent]. 

The production of this movie was phenomenal. Throughout this whole movie you can feel Oscars mood. At the beginning it was a type of live for the moment and don't care, but as the movie goes on you feel a more positive mood. You see Oscar really attempting to do right to make his family proud. Towards the end of the movie Oscar notices how effective his actions are to his daughters childhood.  At that point he notices that he needs to become a role model and stay away from the gangster life that he had became comfortable living in. The scene that had gathered attention nationwide was the train scene. He was starting to become a better person , and wanted to have a fun New Years celebration with his friends and girlfriend. On that train he had an altercation started by an old inmate that had problems with Oscar toward the beginning of this movie. They had started to brawl on the train and the train had stopped and called the authorities. At this moment a very common human rights issue had occurred. The police brutality that took place at the end of this movie would give any person of any age, race, or religion a silencing , jaw-breaking reaction. The police at the end of this movie portrays why citizens in urban areas begin to fear and rebel against authorities. The cops had ran onto the train and just grabbed all African Americans and put them into handcuffs. That even shows the discrimination in how cops choose their suspects based on appearance. The scene where the white cop shoots Oscar in the back was honestly a gut wrenching moment for me. It was so unexpected that it just grabbed your attention no matter what you were doing. The words that had honestly killed me was when Oscar had said that he has a young daughter. That had me think about all the progress and effort he had put in to actually become a better person , boyfriend , father, and son. Overall this movie had given the viewer mixed emotions with the wide range of moods, action , suspense, and thrill. I would advise anybody to watch this movie just because of how much I personally liked it [Jon, your analysis is spot on; I would be curious to have you break this second paragraph up into shorter paragraphs; I also think you should consider including a revised version of this post in your Senior 21st Century Portfolio].