[yasr_overall_rating]
Starr witnesses the fatal shooting of her childhood best friend Khalil at the hands of a police officer. Now, facing pressures from all sides of the community, Starr must find her voice and stand up for what’s right.
Directed by George Tillman, Jr., “The Hate U Give” is based on the best-selling young adult novel by Angie Thomas that derives from Tupac Shakur’s “Thug Life” concept: “The Hate U Give Little Infants F***s Everybody.”
Amanda Stenberg offers a densely layered and compelling performance as Starr Carter, who lives in Garden Heights, a fictional, predominantly black and poor neighborhood. One evening after a party, she finds herself in the car of 17-year-old, lifelong friend, Khalil (Algee Smith), when a police officer pulls them over. As the officer returns to his vehicle to run the drivers license check, Khalil picks up a hairbrush, which the trigger-happy officer mistakes as a gun. Three shots later, Khalil is lying in the street, with both Starr and the officer in hysterics – albeit for different reasons.
Starr’s predicament as a witness is complicated by the fact that she maintains two identities imposed on her by her well-intentioned mother, Lisa, played by Regina Hall. Lisa is a nurse whose parents sent her to Catholic school and – as she says – it wasn’t to learn how to pray. Understandably, Lisa wants her kids to have at least the same opportunity she got.
And so, as Starr says in the voiceover, “High school [in Garden Heights] is where you go to get junk, high or pregnant – we don’t go there.” Instead, Starr and her two brothers attend the mostly white and affluent Williamson High School across town.
Early scenes that outline Starr’s prep school life are fascinating to watch. The voiceover exposition very effectively underscores the balancing act she must perform between the world at Williamson Prep School on the one hand and her home life on the other. At Williamson, she is Starr Version 2, where she eschews confrontation and gives no one an excuse to call her ghetto – and she hates herself for it.
Stenberg’s wonderful performance aside, “The Hate U Give” boasts an outstanding cast from beginning to end. All of the performances feel genuine and brilliantly subtle. In a vehicle ripe for heavy-handed narrative, the filmmakers expertly address important social issues in a thoughtful and insightful manner.
Anthony Mackie once again delivers a fine performance as King, at the top of the neighborhood drug dealing food chain. Issa Rae does a nice turn as April Ofrah, the local organizer advocating for Khalil’s unjust slaying.
Russell Hornsby is multi-faceted as Starr’s father ‘Mav,’ who spent three years in prison keeping King out of jail and, at the same time, winning the right to extricate himself from gang membership. In a film not predisposed to humor – for obvious reasons – there is a fabulous scene where Starr brings home her white, prep school boyfriend, played by K.J. Apa, to meet Mav. With surprising brevity, filled with humor and poignancy, it’s a delight to watch Mav come to terms – sort of – with the situation. The brief vignette is at least on par with earlier efforts addressing interracial romance, such as “Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner” or the more recent “Get Out.”
The movie contains numerous allusions, some eerily relevant to current headlines. The recent shooting of a black man in his own apartment in Dallas by an off-duty policewoman – who mistakenly thought it was her residence – is one example. In the aftermath, early press reports tended to focus on the fact that a search of the man’s apartment turned up a small quantity of marijuana. Local citizens rightly questioned why the emphasis was not on the bizarre nature of the shooting instead.
In “The Hate U Give,” Starr provides a press interview in an attempt to bring the facts of her terrible ordeal to light. Here again, however, the correspondent seems more interested in Khalil’s history as a drug dealer, rather than his wrongful death.
Indeed, were it not for the widespread availability of iPhone videos, many more people would remain unconvinced of racially biased law enforcement excesses. At this point, however, there are no more excuses. We have all seen numerous images of police officers abusing their authority, particularly against minorities. We can no longer pretend that poor people of color are not disproportionately targeted. As such, some scenes are difficult to watch – not because of graphic violence or cruelty, but rather because they serve to remind us of an uncomfortable and often unspoken truth.
Keep an eye out this January for an Academy Award nomination for Best Actress for Amandla Stenberg. Her conflicts and alliances at Williamson, for example, demonstrate a refreshing complexity of character and context. Where resolutions occur, they don’t come across as sappy or stereotypical, but rather more as we would expect in real life. Sternberg delivers a remarkable and riveting performance that will not soon be forgotten. Nor will the film’s important themes.
As Starr memorably says, “More than about Khalil – it’s about black people and poor people at the bottom.” Author and Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Chris Hedges has noted that when government systematically denies a group their rights, then rights become privileges. If rights become privileges, then they can be taken away from any of us. It is well past time for each of us to take a critical look at how inequality contributes to increasing social unrest. “The Hate U Give” may offer a difficult message for some moviegoers, but it’s one we all need to hear.
In theaters Friday, October 19th
