The Hate U Give….Little Infants, F*cks Everybody. Initially, my ignorance thought that title was just a clever way to get THUG in there to make a statement about the story’s central police shooting. However, as I learned with The Hate U Give’s messaging, there are complex, poignant layers under that title. For instance, the title above is actually part of a Tupac song, pointing out how sins of the authority figures get plastered onto the children and affect society for decades. Deep stuff right? So is The Hate U Give, which on it’s surface looks like a message movie, but is actually much more interesting and expansive than that.
The central character of the story is Starr Carter (Amandla Stenberg). Starr’s life is split in 2. She lives in a poorer African-American neighborhood with her loving family. Older step brother Seven (Lamar Johnson), younger brother Sekani (TJ Wright), mom Lisa (Regina Hall), and dad Maverick, Mav for short (Russell Hornsby) where she listens to the music she loves and is more outgoing in general. In addition, because of Lisa’s desires for her kids, Starr is also attending a VERY Caucasian private school, where she plays 2nd fiddle to the culturally appropriating Hailey (Sabrina Carpenter) and is dating the dorky Chris (KJ Apa) on the DL from her dad. Starr’s worlds come crashing together when Starr witnesses a white police officer murder one of her best friends/crushes Khalil (Algee Smith). Starr then has to decide what to do with the information she has on the murder, since it affects all manner of people, including the local neighborhood drug lord King (Anthony Mackie), who probably doesn’t want a spotlight on his business.
I, for one, thought this was gonna be a movie about police violence and how it wrecks everyone in its orbit. However, when you pay attention, The Hate U Give is really about a girl finding her voice. As wonderfully played by Amandla Stenberg, we first meet Starr comfortably navigating and splitting herself into two parts. She’s comfortable, if relatively quiet and on the sidelines. Then the demands start coming from external forces to start merging herself into one: Chris wants to meet her family. Lisa wants to move the family out of their community. Khalil wants to strike up a relationship with Starr. Starr’s personal discovery would have come eventually, but it is finally cruelly forced upon her by the police shooting. As the only witness, we see the good hearted but usually meek Starr at first forcing down the anger in favor of sadness for her lost friend. But then she starts noticing injustices that force that drive and anger to the surface over and over. As the two Starrs slowly become one, she meets resistance from outsiders from both sides of herself. Hailey and Chris are shocked at the person who she is becoming, and King wants to remind her of her perceived place so he can stay the king. However, external forces have clearly awakened something inside of our heroine, and she’s not about to let other people make her do what she does not want to do. By the time we reach the movie’s big climax, the sideline reporter we meet at the beginning has completely morphed into a courageous objector of injustice, willing to put herself in peril so her voice can be heard. She is fierce, motivated, and morally intimidating, including to her policeman uncle Carlos (Common). Starr’s evolution is completely gradual, but wholly earned by the solid writing and Stenberg’s electric performance.
Starr couldn’t do this alone though; there are somewhere between a hundred and a thousand forces and systems she’s fighting against. By making the systemic forces the enemy, The Hate U Give spends its time developing complex characters that operate to defend/upend these systems, grounding them to reality. Chris and Hailey could easily have been token white friends who culturally appropriate things from Starr; however, both get mini arcs about confronting their own assumptions about their friend/girlfriend, with interesting results for both Starr and Chris/Hailey. However, The Hate U Give’s biggest surprise has to be the creation of one of the best African American families I have seen onscreen in recent memory. The very first scenes of the film focus on Starr and her relationships with Mav, Lisa, Seven, and Sekani. Each family member plays a role in one or several of the key moments of Starr’s life. Seven’s mother gives him some thinking to do about how to survive in a scary world, and Sekani’s joy and innocence is put to the test (as well as Starr’s) in the movie’s big, terrifying climax. The movie also gives Starr time with both of her parents independently of the other parent, which, most importantly, means they don’t always agree with one another and sometimes give her conflicting but supportive advice. Mav has a hard time leaving behind his system fighting roots while Lisa prefers to adapt and escape. When Starr’s life is about to go public, Mav and Lisa have strong opinions about what their daughter should do; however, there is 100% no doubt that they will support her whatever her decision may be. Mav and Lisa are smart, strong, amazing parents who raised their girl to become someone special, and they will do everything in their power to make sure their daughter is protected as she becomes who they believe she was born to be, a beautiful subplot that gets richer and more rewarding every minute we spend with the Carter family.
By the time The Hate U Give is over, you will spend a good chunk of your time pondering what you just saw. George Tillman Jr.’s direction, Audrey Wells’s screenplay, and Amandla Stenberg’s and the entire cast’s performances create a canvas of ideas and questions about society, family, and identity, that you might end up putting yourself in one of the character’s shoes. Being a Caucasian, I thought myself am I a Hailey or am I a Chris type of person? Which one do I want to be? Part of me is scared of the answers to those questions, but, as Starr Carter shows, sometimes you have to be brave and take a stand, and maybe don’t give hate, but love. Thanks Starr, for lighting the way for us all.