October 19, 2018 3 min to read

The Hate U Give

At a glance The Hate U Give is pretty conventional, but it’s poignant moments take you by surprise.

by Zach Saul

Pimples, where to sit at lunch, and prom are the most difficult problems the average high schooler faces - but for Starr (Amandla Stenberg) a ride home from a party with her childhood friend Khalil changed everything. Khalil (Algee Smith) is allegedly pulled over for making an ‘abrupt lane change’ and when he asks why he’s being pulled over things escalate quickly. The officer asks him to exit his car to search him, and when Khalil reaches into his car to pick up a comb, he’s murdered by the police officer, and Starr witnesses everything. Starr lives in Garden Heights with her family but goes to a predominately white school with more affluent classmates and tailors her personality accordingly. After witnessing the tragedy we realize Starr’s double life extends beyond her two schools, and the most honest version of herself had to speak out against the officer who shot Khalil.

In the car the night he was shot, Starr teases Khalil about listening to old rap music, and he insists that 2Pac is still relevant, sharing his favorite line “the hate you give little infants fucks everybody”. In the movie’s final crescendo, Maverick is confronted by King and as Maverick reaches for his gun he turns to see his youngest Sakani wielding it at King yelling “leave my daddy alone!”. In that moment, everyone realizes the cyclical nature of oppression 2Pac was referring to, and that Sakani has grown up around anger and violence, so we shouldn’t be surprised to see him wielding a gun.

The Good: The most successful parts of The Hate U Give are the scenes Maverick is reciting to his children the stern words of wisdom from his days with the Black Panthers. The scene where Maverick lines his kids up against the fence and angrily tells them their names carry special power is poignant and moving. Maverick and Lisa (Starr’s mother) have an ongoing tension about whether fight or flight is the best response to the chaos going on around them, and while Lisa is booking tickets to florida, Maverick is forming a fist. Lisa’s flight response rears its head when Starr is asked to testify by a local lawyer April (Issa Rae). To his credit, Director George Tillman Jr. handles this dichotomy with nuance and sensitivity, and we get a strong sense of the importance of both perspectives.

The other major achievement in The Hate U Give is it’s commentary of how we tokenize tragedy. Khalil’s murder is used by Starr’s white classmates as an excuse to skip class - and it becomes clear very quickly that her most traumatizing memory is being used by the masses as an excuse to feel alive. Starr’s reluctance to go on TV and reveal that she is the witness isn’t just to protect herself from ridicule, and unwanted attention. Starr is also being careful about who she’s speaking for - and who her voice will represent once she goes public.

The Bad: The more conventional high school drama scenes are nothing to write home about. While I understand the intention behind showing Starr’s evolving relationship with her white friend Hailey - (to explain the Black Live Matter movement) we didn’t see enough to understand the relationship fully and it felt tangential to the weightier themes of identity, fight or flight, and tokenizing tragedy.