The Hate U Give

The Hate U Give was originally a critically acclaimed New York times bestseller novel that was later turned into a movie. The movie has been highly rated by rolling stones, rotten tomatoes and many others. Accumulating $7.5million in the box office so far, the movie has lived up to the its expectations.
The movie expands on Tupac’s acronym T.H.U.G L.I.F. E or The Hate U Give Little Infants F**k Everybody. Starr Carter is an African-American girl is from a predominately black and poverty-stricken neighborhood. She attends a rich, mostly white preparatory school in order to receive better education. Starr is stuck in a dilemma where she is constantly switching between the two worlds to fit in. She feels like she’s too black for the kids and too white for the black kids. The movie then proceeds to show Starr’s childhood best friend being shot and killed by a white police officer. From there Starr tackles different problems within her community and school along with the pressure of finding her voice to speak up about the incident and to fight for justice.
This movie is so important especially in this day and age. The movie talks about different social issues in our society including police brutality and racism. George Tillman Jr. Did a good job directing when emphasizing the conditions that these kids have to live through in these communities. In the movie it shows Starr the might after the shooting waking up form nightmares and throwing up. It also shows Starr facing difficult situations within her friends’ group when her closest friends started defending the cop and saying racist remarks. George Tillman Jr. Essentially focuses on how these types of situations effects their life in every aspect. One of the obvious parts of the movie that really made it interesting was the color shift in very scene. When she was at home the color was warm but while she away the color was cool and cool.
In the novel Starr was portrayed as a dark skin female but while in the movie she was light skinned. Which sparked up controversy on the internet where this could be a case of potentially casting a light skin female in order to appeal to the audience. Don’t get me wrong Amandla Stenberg is a good actor but is she the only African American girl available in Hollywood? This problem then goes into the colorism conflict. Other than that, and a few cringey acting scenes involving Starr and her boyfriend, the movie was one of the few good police brutality movies that have come out this year.
The Hate U Give can only be categorized with only a few other of the good movies that tackle these same issues. The movie can be described as a teen melodrama with brutally honest plot that many would recommend.