Surprisingly incoherent and boring

It is a performances centric movie

Better Late Then Never

This is a tender, generous movie that likes its characters and presents them as real people, full of flaws and strengths.

Joethemnmovieman.com said, "..Traffic Stop is another film about injustice designed to make your blood boil." but what made my blood boil was that I wasted 30min of my life watching what would happen to anyone who doesn't follow the instructions of a Peace Officer. Injustice does occur, yet this wasn't it. I'm quite astonished that all the Profession Critics are trembling out their praises. A better documentary would be "how political correctness warps our cognitive reality". "What am I supposed to learn from this?" She asks herself..how about, "Listen to instructions."? I hope she teaches her students that thinking and acting for yourself is not in their best interest if their directly disobeying instructions from a Peace Officer. Had she put her feet in, and closed the door, and was then attacked by the cop...boom, lawsuit heaven... but she messed up, and she's going to eat the legal fees.

Kate Davis' "Traffic Stop" is an American 2017 half-hour documentary that managed an Oscar nomination this year and actually lost out to another film in the documentary short category that also has the word "traffic" in the title. Oh well, as for this one here it is about a Black woman who refused to cooperate properly during a police control and we get the video footage of this and the rest is basically all about manipulating the audience into thinking what a likable honorable person the woman in the car was. Oh well, I do think both sides did not act accordingly here. Yes the police officer was over-the-top violent perhaps, but if you refuse cooperating like she does and then even try to hurry up the cop, then sometimes you get what you deserve and it is not like she carried away any injuries from that event. Besides if you are in the police car, it may not be the best idea to constantly scream and, even worse, kick the equipment. Obey the officer's orders 100% is the best way to handle the situation and get it over with quickly and not act like a brat all the time. Given the "victim's" intellect, she really should know that. Don't let them fool you. This is NOT an example of racist violence or even a hate crime as some may want to declare it. Sucks to see the Academy fell for it, but then again with liberal Hollywood full of shame these days because of (alleged) racism, it is not too surprising it managed the nomination. Luckily, the far more deserving project won the category. What else is there to say about this one. Completely aside from the subject, I also think the physical execution here felt very mediocre and the film had very little to offer apart from it being among the most controversial Oscar entries this year. You have to decide for one side here, indifference is not an option. For me, it was a lot of hullaballoo to be honest and a situation that definitely does not deserve a film made about it. The moment when the film hits rock-bottom really is when they even get a reference to the Trayvon Martin case in here. Oh boy, this could not have been any more disrespectful really and even if you say that the young Black American was shot and murdered in cold blood (which I don't), then it is the most disrespectful thing to compare what happened to him and what happened to Breaion King. I give this one a huge thumbs-down. I have not seen everything obviously, but this one we got here is a definite contender for worst Oscar-nominated movie this year. A failure from pretty much every perspective.

Any reasonable person knows the topic is a real issue. And there are moments where we get to see the perspective of both a cop and the driver without it being wrapped in all of the emotional overdrive and posturing that oozes out of the rest of the film. With a different case this same format might have worked really well. This specific traffic stop's footage doesn't tell the story that needs to be told. It might actually serve to convince people in the opposite direction. Instead I have to wonder if the production team watched the dash cam footage. Did they edit it in believing they knew what it portrayed? Or were they so blinded by passion for the topic that they felt Breaion's life story would cause us to excuse her choices?Either way, it's sloppy. Hopefully future filmmakers take more care to ensure the dashcam footage matches the story they build.

The topics of systemic racism, police brutality and the Black Lives Matter movement are supremely important (especially in today's America), which is why I was so disappointed in this weak and slanted documentary about the "brutal arrest" of Austin school-teacher Breaion King. Police incidents boil down to the human beings involved, their backgrounds, perceptions and subsequent actions/reactions.This would have been an excellent opportunity to explore those by profiling both King AND Officer Richter, to solid context for understanding the issue and finding a solution to it. Instead director Kate Davis choose to go to great lengths placing King in the warmest light possible for cheap shock value. The result is an emotionally manipulative profile featuring iPhone videos of her daughter's ballet recital, tearful stories of her struggles of being raised by and then being a single-parent, and the most out-of-context news coverage possible.On top of this, (while unfortunate,) the arrest video clearly shows a suspect trying to get out of a ticket, being uncooperative, and playing up the scene for any cameras present. In response, the Officer is compelled to escalate in order to do his job, and did so in a calm, respectful tone of voice without his gun, tazer, baton or punches. A cop asking you to stay in your car, or put your feet inside (to close the door) is not unreasonable. But trying to frustrate a cop so much that he won't write you a ticket IS unreasonable. As a relatively mild misunderstanding, this was an opportunity for both sides to LEARN, to tamp down fear on both sides, and create a better bridge of understanding. Instead of elevating the conversation, the director does harm to her own cause and sets us back on this important issue. First: It will be quickly dismissed by Blue Lives Matter supporters for what it is: a propaganda piece with an (unfortunate) but not brutal ordinary traffic stop with a difficult suspect. Second: it lends credence and legitimizes right-wing docs like "Obama's America" (2012) by saying all docs are political. This is a disturbing trend in "Documentaries" these days: Heavy-handed, thinly-sourced, and purposefully unbalanced clearly intended to sway viewers based on a political agenda. Documentaries have the potential to become the new "investigative journalism," for the short attention span audiences of today, educating the electorate, and pulling people out of their bubbles. If you strongly believe your 'side' is right, showing the entire truth should bear that out. Save the fact-picking for historical dramas.