The Hate U Give

[StevePulaski]

The Hate U Give (2018)
Directed by: George Tillman, Jr.

Amandla Stenberg.

Rating: ★★★

George Tillman, Jr's The Hate U Give emphatically reaffirms the strength and potential of the young adult film adaptation. In a genre that too often settles for sporadically compelling fantasies and modest teen drama not far divorced from Degrassi. Based on Angie Thomas' raw best-seller, The Hate U Give is both a heartbreaking and infuriating commentary on race relations, police brutality, and the need for citizens to rise up in the face of despicable injustice.

The film opens with Maverick (Russell Hornsby in a terrific performance) and his wife Lisa Carter (Regina Hall) talking to their young children about what to do when they're pulled over in a traffic stop. Maverick, a family man with gang-ties who also preaches the gospel of the Black Panthers, implores his tween son and daughter to put their hands on the car dashboard and calmly cooperate with the officer so as not to intensify what will already be a tense situation. The scene illustrates an uncomfortable conversation that has certainly become common in the homes of black families.

A few years later, Maverick's daughter Starr (Amandla Stenberg) finds herself in the very situation her father warned her about. Her and her high school friend, Khalil (Detroit's Algee Smith), are pulled over, and the incident soon escalates when the officer mistakes Khalil's hairbrush for a weapon and shoots him in cold blood. The event leaves Starr traumatized, as it would most people. She's lived a life of code-switching brought on by attending a mostly white prep school while living in a predominately black community. She's learned to be patient and largely silent when faced with casual racism, even when it's her friend (Sabrina Carpenter) dishing it out. After the shooting, she commits not to go public and say she was the witness to her friend's death, but that ignites tension between her mother and father who are urging her to take separate paths. Even her white boyfriend, Chris (KJ Apa), tries to talk to her, but is cold-shouldered as she tries to persist through unbelievable pain. Another friend of her's is Kenya (Dominique Fishback), the half-sister of Starr’s half-brother Seven (Lamar Johnson), but even her alliance only goes so far..

Throughout the film, Starr struggles with her next move. Does she remain quiet and let another innocent black teenager's story go unheard or does she heath the meaning of the name her parents gave her and let her message shine? As corny as that sounds, it's a subtext that's astutely handled by screenwriter Audrey Wells (who sadly died of cancer October 4th, 2018, the day before this film was released), as she doesn't shy away from unearthing the painful and gritty details of this story. At 133 minutes, The Hate U Give is in no rush to illustrate Starr's connection with her family on top of the various, active dynamics that make it so investing. Other notable subplots involve King (Anthony Mackie), Kendra's father and a known drug-dealer and gang-leader, as he grows increasingly uneasy with what Khalil's death and Starr being a witness means for his posse, and Starr's Uncle Carlos (played by rapper Common), a police officer for the same unit as the cop who shot Khalil, who is forced to reevaluate his own protocol following this atrocity.

Even as The Hate U Give piles on the details, it never offers easy answers. A scene showing kids at Starr's prep school a little too eager to "commemorate" the life of Khalil by walking out of class show the fine line between honoring someone and milking a tragedy for personal gain, not to mention entirely missing the point. Several moments involve Starr's friend repeatedly on the wrong-side of the argument, as she either speaks in sympathy of the offending cop's present situation or simply reacts with a caustic edge to her friend's growing distance. Then there's Starr coming to grips with the fact that while police are necessary to maintain the law and order of society and shouldn't be targeted out of misdirected anger, that remaining silent is accepting an innocent teenager's death as normalcy in present day America. Wells handles all of this quite marvelously.

The film was directed by George Tillman, Jr. (Soul Food, Men of Honor) in a manner that's effective, if a bit ordinary. He handles everything from intimate conversation to large protests with clarity and poise, but doesn't impose much of a definitive style on anything, perhaps too quick to fall into the path of a journeyman. Yet he doesn't get in the way of the material, and perhaps any kind of flashy photography or obtuse directorial choices might've misplaced the emphasis on visuals as opposed to message. Wells' words and Thomas' messages don't get lost and part of the reason is that Tillman, Jr. refuses to be distracted or distracting. I'll go one step further by saying that Wells' script is the real star here along with Amandla Stenberg, an actress I loved in last year's underrated Everything, Everything and someone who proves she is a fantastic new face, capable of portraying a complex and emotionally nuanced person. Like Starr, Stenberg grows as the film goes on, breaking out gradually until she's practically screaming with a never-before-seen ferociousness.

One last thing: the title, which some will recognize immediately. The Hate U Give is half of the Tupac-coined acronym "THUG LIFE," which touts a blunt, hard-hitting message: "The hate (yo)u give little infants f**ks everybody." Tupac's message and gospel is felt all over this film, whether we're hearing the classic All Eyez on Me bump in someone's car or we're pondering how the hate we instill in our youth and affirm in our own cultures only renders an already broken country even more in a state of disarray. Even with a PG-13 rating, Wells gets a lot of leeway to tell this story with the brutal honesty it needs. Bravo to the MPAA for not taking the expected route and stamping this film with an R-rating that would block its target audience from seeing it.

Some below average acting and maudlin, overplayed bits can't underscore The Hate U Give as the powerful, emotionally impacting drama it is. It fits right in with other works, such as the tremendous Fruitvale Station and documentaries 13th and Whose Streets, as another hard-hitting and entirely effective look at police brutality, only this time, it takes a grassroots approach, so to speak. Its target audience is comprised of those who have a chance to fix the system, and on that note, The Hate U Give is fantastically inspirational.

Starring: Amandla Stenberg, Russell Hornsby, Regina Hall, KJ Apa, Lamar Johnson, Dominique Fishback, Anthony Mackie, Common, Sabrina Carpenter, and Algee Smith. Directed by: George Tillman, Jr.