“The Hate U Give” is a disturbingly relevant portrayal of racism and social injustice in present-day America.
Based on the 2017 book of the same name by Angie Thomas, the film centers around a young African-American woman named Starr Carter and her struggles against society’s most oppressive norms.
Playing Carter is Amandla Stenberg who is best known for playing Rue in 2012’s “The Hunger Games.” Stenberg expertly portrays Carter and brings the literary character to life as someone who is struggling to find acceptance and unity within two different groups of society.
Carter comes from the predominantly black and lower-middle-class neighborhood of Garden Heights with her father Maverick, played by Russell Hornsby, and mother Lisa, played by Regina Hall, who own a local restaurant.
Carter attends a private school in a far more affluent and predominantly white neighborhood on the other side of town.
To her private school peers, she is celebrated, but often in a condescending way as she fulfills the “token black friend” role to many of her white friends.
When she returns to Garden Heights, Carter’s black neighborhood friends question her “blackness” and are conflicted about the pretense that comes with attending a private school.
The film’s central plot takes off in a tragic – but not surprising way – when Carter goes to a local house party with her friend Khalil.
On the way home from the party, Khalil is pulled over by the police, sheerly out of racial profiling. During the altercation, Khalil reaches for a comb and is shot dead by a police man in front of Carter.
Carter then challenges the actions of the officers involved but is enraged to learn that Khalil’s killers won’t be prosecuted.
The once naive Carter then grasps the gritty and bigoted nature of police brutality when officers use excessive force on her father at his own restaurant during an investigation.
Carter then realizes that she has an obligation to her people to get justice for Khalil.
With the support of her friend, a Black Lives Matter activist played by Issa Rae and her friend King played by Anthony Mackie, Carter goes on a journey of self-realization that results in a crusade against bigotry.
Opposite Stenberg are a wide variety of brilliant veteran actors.
Hornsby, known from similar films such as “Fences,” excels in his portrayal of a selfless black father who defies the negative stereotypes associated with black fathers to become a mentor figure to Carter.
Maverick wants to protect his daughter but also accepts that she must use her platform to expose police injustice, a mindset that is best articulated when Maverick says, “I didn’t name you Starr by accident.”
K.J. Apa and Sabrina Carpenter, who play Carter’s rich white friends from her private school, deliver a convincing performance of two well-meaning, but ultimately ignorant friends who come to the realization that “color blindness” is just fighting ignorance with more ignorance.
The film is a masterpiece that is faithful to the plot of the original novel but can also be celebrated as a stand-alone film.
“The Hate U Give” is a heartbreaking but ultimately uplifting story of overcoming prejudice, fear, guilt, and sorrow to use one’s platform for the greater good no matter what the cost.
5 out of 5 stars
