Film Review: The Hate U Give

When I saw charming, smart Amandla Stenberg interviewed on a talk show, I knew I wanted to see her moving, powerful film, The Hate U Give. Stenberg plays Starr Carter, a teenager who lives a life of code-switching. Home is an impoverished Black community suffering the violence of the police and the violence of the drug dealers. School is in a posh white neighborhood where, to counteract her isolation, she must adapt her speech, behavior, and most of all her reactions.

Her lifelong friend Khalil (Algee Smith) is murdered by a white cop for no reason at all during a traffic stop, and she is the only witness. One male authority figure after another – her powerful, devoted, ex-prisoner father (Russell Hornsby); her loving uncle, a cop (Common); the local drug lord – tells her what to do about testifying or not at the upcoming grand jury. The advice from the two adult women – her mother (Regina Hall) and the community organizer (Issa Rae) – is given less emotional weight, although in the end, it is the community activist who most impacts Starr’s direction.

The cast is simply sterling – one fabulous performance after another. The action and the emotional punches are non-stop. I cried many times. Apparently meant as a Young Adult film, I recommend it to everyone.

This is the trailer:

Comments

[Sue Kelman]

The book was extremely powerful, so they had a good bse from which to build the movie. I'll look forward to seeing it, but my guess is that the book would be an equally good place to start.

Thanks for this review. I had wondered about going and now will.

[Sue Katz]

I guess I'll read the book, on this recommendation, but I'm not sure I ever read a book AFTER I had seen the film.