The Hate U Give

I wanted to write an impressive full review for another incredible movie I got to see on Friday, The Hate U Give, but I just can’t. As amazing as this movie was (it’s the 10th film on my “Potential Best Picture Nominees for 2018” list), I can’t rightfully give a proper review for it based on the subject matter.

This film is told through the eyes of Starr Carter, powerfully played by Amandla Stenberg. She’s been an up-and-coming actress for a few years now. You have probably seen her as Rue in The Hunger Games, Maddy in Everything, Everything, or maybe even Ruby Daly in The Darkest Minds from earlier this year.

As seen in the trailer, Starr is the passenger in a vehicle that gets pulled over late at night by a cop, more specifically, a white cop. Now both teenagers in the car are African American, and being pulled over by a white cop is something that is seen way too often lately in our country. Starr’s friend Khalil is the driver who ends up outside of the car waiting for “115”, the officer’s badge number, to return from his vehicle with his license. Khalil reaches into the car to grab his brush and is holding it in his hand when “115” mistakes the brush as a gun and shoots Khalil, which ends up being fatally. Starr witnesses the whole thing and ends up staying by Khalil’s side until after his final breath.

Now I’m not a fan of giving anything away when I review a movie, as I want every other person to experience a film the same way I would. So I won’t get into very much detail after what I’ve already said, but just know that when Starr “finds her voice”….wow! Her character development and build up to this point is truly astounding as well.

This film also had incredible performances from the supporting cast. Regina Hall plays Starr’s mother, Lisa. You know her most recently from last year’s Girls Trip. Russell Hornsby plays her father Maverick, an ex-convict. Anthony Mackie gives a very strong performance as King. He’s most known for his roles in the Marvel Cinematic Universe as Sam Wilson/Falcon, The Night Before, and 2009 Best Picture winner The Hurt Locker. A very wide array of genres shows how versatile he is as an actor. Academy Award winner Common plays Uncle Carlos, a detective on the force, but is also very real as to how these situations play out.

The Hate U Give derives it’s title from Tupac Shakur. His famous saying “The Hate U Give Little Infants F**** Everybody” is what he felt T-H-U-G-L-I-F-E stands for. “What society gives us as youth, it bites them in the a** when we wild out, get it?” is a direct quote from the movie, also the novel it was adapted from, written by Angie Thomas. Basically, we teach young kids hate and stereotypes at a very early age, which they carry throughout life. The novel was started as a short story by Thomas in college following the real life shooting of Oscar Grant III in 2009.

Like I mentioned earlier, I don’t feel like I can give this film a proper review, because I’m a white male. Unfortunately, things that happen in this movie do happen every day in our country. The Hate U Give puts every viewer in the situations that occur in the movie and really makes you feel anger towards society. I strongly urge everyone to get out to see this film, which doesn’t open as a wide release until 10/19. Fox Searchlight decided to roll it out on 36 screens as a limited release this past weekend, bringing in $500K for an impressive per-screen average of $13,889. Word of mouth is very strong with this film, as it very well should be, and will help it grow into the public statement it was meant to be.