The Hate U Give

T.H.U.G.L.I.F.E.

The Hate U Give Little Infants Fucks Everyone

- Tupac Shakur. The man knew what time it was.

Starr Carter is a teenage girl living a double life in Atlanta, Georgia. In her predominantly Black neighbourhood of Garden Heights she can be herself but in her predominantly white high school she has to wear a whole other face lest the students there see her as "hood" as she describes it. She's torn between two worlds and both of them come crashing together when her and her oldest friend Khalid have a fateful night-time encounter with a white cop. In the aftermath Starr has to decide who she is. Does she want to keep quiet to stop alienation from her school friends? Or does she become the strong proud Black woman her father raised her to be but risk upsetting the criminal elements of Garden Heights.

This is upsetting stuff. A brutal and exceedingly topical look at what it means to be a person of colour in America today. It's a raw, superbly acted film about the things we'd rather not think about. The things we as white people never have to worry about because our privilege shields us from them. It's social realism at it's most relevant.  A melodramatic subplot does unfortunately take away a little of it's power but it's still a vital watch.

The film revolves around Starr as she struggles with what she witnessed that night. Fit to explode with righteous fury but holding it in so as to not upset those around her. Amandla Stenberg is phenomenal in the part. A happy girl with a brilliant smile and it's traumatic to see her world cave in around her. It's a real career making role. Russell Hornsby as her father Maverick is just as good. Once a criminal but now changed man, he conveys a former life he's ashamed of in a couple of lines of dialogue that are short but packed with meaning. "The nightmares are always the worst just after...". The pain he feels for his daughter's grief is palpable. The performances are great all around but these two stick out.

At one point in the film we see Starr's tumblr page is filled with images of African American lives destroyed by White America. The camera noticeably lingers on images of Michael Brown and Emmett Till. Till was a young man lynched in the south in 1955 and Brown was shot by police in Ferguson in 2014. Two murders that made headlines worldwide. Two murders that should have changed things but nothing has changed and the characters in this film know that. It's heartbreaking to see the resignation. The acceptance that the worst can and will happen. An early moment shows a father teaching his children to put their hands up and stay quiet during police interactions. This acceptance of institutional racism just appallingly sad but in their experience necessary. Imagine having to learn from an early age that you're seen as a second class citizen in your own country. That's T.H.U.G.L.I.F.E. There's also pointed digs at those people who claim to be colour blind. It's easy for us to claim that. Because it's never been an issue for us. To ignore colour is to ignored the lived experience of people of colour. It's an issue raised again and again because some people still need to learn that.

That subplot mentioned earlier feels rather silly in places though. A drug gang led by a menacing Anthony Mackie becomes interwined in proceedings and it's only here that the film suffers. He never feels like more than a stereotype and his actions are predictable in a film that's anything but. I know this storyline comes from the book this film is based on but it just doesn't feel as real as the rest. That said it is another example of the few avenues of escape open to Black men in America. The strength of the rest of the movie makes up for it though. It's depiction of the rawness of injustice. The roar of #BlackLivesMatter. Starr's journey. This isn't a story full of easy answers but it asks a lot of questions that still to this day need to be asked.

This is a film that will make people angry and it should make people angry. It's blunt but it needs to be blunt. The issues dealt with in this story aren't issues that can be dealt with in a subtle way. Certain people will complain this is racist towards white America but they are the people who need to learn from it the most. It's a powerful, incendiary watch.