The big-screen collaborations between actor Michael B. Jordan and director Ryan Coogler have been — pardon the pun — fruitful over the years.
There's the "Rocky" spinoff "Creed," the acclaimed boxing drama written and directed by Coogler in which Jordan stars as Adonis Creed, an amateur boxer trained and mentored by Sylvester Stallone's Rocky Balboa.
There are, of course, the massively successful and Oscar-winning "Black Panther" flicks, the first of which quickly became the highest-grossing film directed by a Black filmmaker with a cool $1.3 billion worldwide upon release.
And now the actor-director duo has teamed up for a powerful new vampire thriller that's being hailed as "a masterpiece": "Sinners" stars Jordan as twin brothers who return to their Mississippi hometown to start again, only to discover that an even greater evil is waiting to welcome them back.
The horror film has ruled the box office since it hit theaters on April 18, but before you head to the cinema to see "Sinners," you should revisit Jordan and Coogler's first film project together: the devastating 2013 drama "Fruitvale Station," which is available to stream now on Hulu.
What is 'Fruitvale Station' about?
![Fruitvale Station (2013) Official Trailer [HD] - YouTube](https://img.youtube.com/vi/vHkKUPHn8TE/maxresdefault.jpg)
The biographical drama tells the purportedly true story of 22-year-old Bay Area resident Oscar Grant III (played by Jordan) during the final 24 hours of his life, leading up to his being fatally shot by trigger-happy transit police officers in Oakland, California. (Kevin Durand and Chad Michael Murray play the two BART police officers involved in Grant's death.)
Prior to his tragic death, we see Grant — who previously did time in California's San Quentin Rehabilitation Center for dealing marijuana — trying to live a clean and sober life with his girlfriend Sophina (Melonie Diaz), their adorable young daughter (Ariana Neal), his mother Wanda (Oscar winner Octavia Spencer).
He joins his friends and family to head into San Francisco to watch the festive fireworks show on New Year's Eve. But on the way back home on the train, Grant gets swept up into a troubling altercation with the Bay Area police that ends in tragedy.
Why you should stream 'Fruitvale Station' on Hulu
Ryan Coogler made his feature-length debut with the 2013 indie, but even though "Fruitvale Station" was his first, it's a remarkably assured debut, winning the Grand Jury Prize and the Audience Award for U.S. dramatic film at the 2013 Sundance Film Festival and the award for Best First Film at the 2013 Cannes Film Festival.
Rather than opting for melodrama, Coogler's direction features a quiet restraint that adds a spine-chilling horror to the casual violence that ultimately claims the young life of Oscar Grant III.
And as Oscar — yet another unarmed young black man whose future is cut short by the corruption and racism around him — Michael B. Jordan gives a career-making performance, opting similarly for an everyday subtlety that feels all the more devastating by the day's end.
In his The Hollywood Reporter write-up, Todd McCarthy wrote that Jordan "gives off vibes of a very young Denzel Washington in the way he combines gentleness and toughness; he effortlessly draws the viewer in toward him."
On Rotten Tomatoes, where the film has a stellar 94% approval rating from 212 reviews, the site's critical consensus reads: "Passionate and powerfully acted, 'Fruitvale Station' serves as a celebration of life, a condemnation of death, and a triumph for star Michael B. Jordan."
The early collaboration between Jordan and Coogler gives great insight into the foundations of one of Hollywood's most successful and acclaimed partnerships, so add "Fruitvale Station" to your watch list ASAP.
Watch "Fruitvale Station" on Hulu now
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