The Hate U Give (2018)
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The Hate U Give Movie Review
The Hate U Give is a 2018 teen drama film directed by George Tillman Jr. and starring Amandla Stenberg. It’s such a great, pleasant surprise.
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“How many more of us do you have to kill before you get it?“
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The movie follows a teenage girl who unwillingly joins the protest to fight for justice after her friend was killed by sheer police brutality and racism. First off, I am getting so tired with all these racism films and just this year we’ve had ‘BlacKkKlansman’ and ‘Sorry to Bother You’. But this movie is so infinitely better than those two flicks and it’s just so great on all fronts that I couldn’t resist it and I ended up both loving it and admiring it. It’s clearly to me the best film about this subject matter since ‘Do the Right Thing’.
It’s a movie that is so immediate, so eloquent and so powerful in its emotional and protest scenes that it has the power to inspire genuine change. The biggest compliment I can give to this picture is that it’s genuinely gripping from start to finish which was difficult to accomplish for a two-hour film about a familiar subject matter, but the filmmakers managed to create such an involving, constantly riveting film that holds real power in many of its scenes.
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It portrays police brutality in a horrific manner and it also tries to get to the root of the problem by stating how the thug life of black people all came from the brutality of white people in power and the lack of chances the black community gets regularly. It’s a never-ending cycle that was painfully showcased here. But the movie also importantly showcased the racism from the other side too and it showed some white people, such as her boyfriend, as being genuinely good and open-minded. That made the movie very unbiased and sophisticated.
And the best thing about the film is that it focuses on the protagonist Starr and thus becomes a young adult teen flick as well as drama. It’s intimate and ambitious at the same time and I love movies that focus still on the characters and not just the cause. Starr is a wonderful character and her journey from passive to active, from not taking sides to deciding to finally stand for what is right proved to me incredibly inspiring and relatable.
Amandla Stenberg gave an amazing performance, there is no denying the power of her work here and the fact that she was Rue in ‘The Hunger Games’ just goes to show the power of her transition to adulthood as she became a genuinely terrific actress who here is riveting in her very complex role that demanded from her many real, changing emotions. Her parents are also good, the boyfriend is very likable and Khalil is such a sweet guy and their potential romance felt so strong that his death afterward felt all the more powerful and emotionally earned.
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The Hate U Give is so well directed, acted and shot. The score is forgettable and I wished for even more romance in the first half, but what we get is great. The thug aspect also felt underutilized, but the overall drama in the school, with her boyfriend, with her family and her cause was so well done. The dialogue is powerful and inspirational and the movie has many instantly memorable scenes such as the crime itself and the final powerful moments.
The Hate U Give’s powerful, sophisticated dialogue, Amandla Stenberg’s breakthrough performance and many truly moving, inspirational scenes make this the best film about racism since ‘Do the Right Thing’. It actually tries to get to the root of the problem unlike so many other movies about this subject matter and it’s such an ambitious and important, yet also intimate film as is evidenced by the protagonist Starr’s amazing journey from a passive, regular girl to an active seeker for justice which should prove relatable and inspirational to many.
