The Hate U Give Review

America is in a highly charged state regarding its current political climate and identity politics becoming more prominent. The adaptation of Angie Thomas’ novel The Hate U Give taps into this zeitgeist for a young adult audience.

Starr Carter (Amandla Stenberg) is a 16-year-old girl from a poor black neighbourhood and attends a private school. Her school and home lives are kept separate. Starr’s life is changed when she when she sees an old friend, Khalil (Algee Smith), getting shot by a white police officer (Drew Starkey). The incident turns Garden Heights into a powder keg that is ready to go off.

Media targeted at young adults has been in the fantasy and sci-fi genre but the tread recently has been to make more grounded tales. Some have focused weighty subjects like terminal illness (The Fault in Our Stars) and homosexuality (Love, Simon) and The Hate U Give follows in that vein and is even more dramatic than those films.

The Hate U Give tackles a number of socio-economic themes and ideas. There is institutional racism, racial profiling, victim blaming, the role of media in high-profile criminal cases, poverty and crime, racial identity and the themes of community and segregation. It is a lot to take in and process and Starr herself goes through a lot in the film.

The film opens an eye-opening scene where the family patriarch, Maverick (Russell Hornsby) teaching his young children what to do if they get stopped by the police. It is something that most people would never have to worry about and when someone is stopped by the police it shouldn’t be because of their skin colour.

Maverick is a proud man who teaches his children the Black Panther manifesto and how they should fight for their rights – by any means necessary. He refuses to leave Garden Heights because it is where his people and community are, even though his wife wants to leave because of the growing gang violence. Whilst Maverick might call it community, others might see Garden Heights as a form of segregation.

The Hate U Give plays a bit like a teen version of Boyz n the Hood. Starr and her brothers have a way out because of their private education, but most of the people in Garden Hatton are trapped. There are stuck in a vicious cycle of crime, poverty, and violence. Gangs dominate the area and people get sucked up in drug dealing, drug addiction, and gang violence. As Starr described the local high school a place you to get high, knocked up or killed. Maverick describes what happens to lots of young men become dealers because there are no opportunities and usually ended in one of two outcomes.

Starr is a ’90s obsessive and a fan of The Fresh Prince of Bel Air. That show famously had an episode about racial profiling where Will and Carlton are stopped and arrested just because they’re black. Over the space of nearly 30 years not much has changed regarding racial discrimination.

The film looks at the media’s role in these cases which are too common in the United States. As a Brit the American style of reporting is alien. Even before any criminal proceeding could take place and it becomes a battle for hearts-and-minds. Starr and her friend (Dominque Fishback) comment on how the local portrayed the victim’s mother and both the media and the police focused on Khalil’s criminal background, using that almost as a justification for his shooting.

Besides from the institutional racism The Hate U Give also looks at more subtle forms of racism. Starr suffers from uncomfortable looks from some of school peers and Starr has to act prim and proper because if she even uses slang she would be seen as the ghetto kid. She scoffs at the idea that her white boyfriend, Chris (KJ Apa), saying he doesn’t see colour because even if it’s true he is in a safe position of white privilege. The film also sneers at people who use protests and the Black Lives Matters movement in a flippant way or make themselves look good.

The film had a talented cast, all centred around Amandla Stenberg whose character had a presence in every scene. This film has the potential to make her star. She was great as the happy, carefree student with a sweet smile to a traumatised girl with a big secret to finding her voice in this climate. Russell Hornsby was impressive as Starr’s father who has to give his daughter important life lessons and forced to face the criminals dominating Garden Heights.

The biggest named actors in the film were Anthony Mackie and the rapper Common. There were in smaller roles and give the film some gravitas and their names properly helped attract some investment. Whilst Mackie played the villainous King Lord, Common had the more poignant role who talks about the mindset of a cop during a vehicle stop.

The Hate U Give has a certain political position, coming across as a film produced by Malcolm X. Sometimes the political ideas presented are over-simplified and some nuance was required for certain sectors. Yet it is a powerful film that looks at complex sociological ideas and is well-made and noble drama.