Review: The Hate U Give

Starr Carter is living a double life. There's the Starr that was born and raised in the fictional predominantly black neighbourhoud of Garden Heights. This is the Starr whose father Maverick (Russell Hornsby) taught her and her brothers Seven (Lamar Johnson) and Sekani (TJ Wright) how to behave around the police. Keep calm, answer their questions but offer nothing extra, and keep your hands in plain sight at all times. However, Maverick emphasises, just because they have to deal with this kind of trouble doesn't mean they should ever forget that "being black is an honour 'cause you come from greatness."

The other Starr is the one that attends Williamson School with its mostly white student body. Her mother Lisa (Regina Hall) made sure that she and her siblings avoided the local high school because that's "where you go to get high, jumped, pregnant, or killed." At Williamson, she has to be approachable, non-confrontational, or give anyone any reason to call her ghetto. She avoids slang even if her white friends don't because "slang makes them cool, slang makes me hood."

She's been successful in keeping her worlds separate until one fateful night when she attends a party with her black friends. A fight ensues, shots ring out, and she's ushered to safety by Khalil (Algee Smith), her childhood best friend and first crush with whom she's lost touch. He offers to drive her home, they reminisce and reconnect, he kisses her, she reminds him she has a boyfriend, he cheekily replies he has all the time in the world for her to come around. Then they're pulled over by the police - Starr immediately places her hands on the dashboard, begs Khalil to do the same and pleads with her friend to stay put when the white officer has him get out of the car. But Khalil doesn't and, when he reaches in to grab his hairbrush, the officer shoots him and Khalil dies as Starr desperately tries to comfort him and the officer panics at what he's done.

What ensues is a powerful depiction of Starr's political awakening. The only witness to the incident, she's appalled that the detectives on the case would insinuate that the whole thing was Khalil's fault because he's black, comes from a neighbourhood plagued with violence, and was dealing drugs, though he was only doing this in order to help pay for his ailing grandmother's medical bills. Complicating matters is the neighbourhood's reaction to the shooting - everyone is rightly tired of innocent black men being shot by white cops and protests when the cop who shot Khalil is only placed on administrative leave. The news media picks up on this and Starr is torn between protecting her identity and standing up for Khalil.

The Hate U Give, the title of which refers to the acronym THUG LIFE ("The Hate U Give Little Infants F**ks Everybody") popularised by Tupac Shakur, is a searing adaptation of Angie Thomas' best-selling 2017 novel of the same name. More nuanced, complex and layered than it has any right to be, the film perceptively conveys what it's like to grow up black in a racially divided America. Yes, there are times when it's too on the nose and the ending may be too tidy, but the majority of the film tackles its minefield of a subject with intelligence and clarity.

The performances are phenomenal with Hornsby and Smith particular standouts, the former delivering another superlative portrait of fatherhood (if you haven't seen his devastating work in the similarly themed Netflix mini-series, Seven Seconds, then you are missing out) and the latter making a lasting impression with his brief screen time. Then there is Amandla Stenberg, who finally has a role that showcases her talents. She is nothing less than exceptional here, charting Starr's transition from code-switching teen to traumatised victim to impassioned leader with impressive skill.

The Hate U Give

Directed by: George Tillman, Jr.

Written by: Audrey Wells; based on the novel by Angie Thomas

Starring: Amandla Stenberg, Regina Hall, Russell Hornsby, Common, Issa Rae, Anthony Mackie, KJ Apa, Algee Smith, Sabrina Carpenter, Lamar Johnson, TJ Wright