Starr’s little brother Sekani (TJ Wright) grapples with grief, language and trauma through the impressionable mind of a child, culminating in a distinct moment at the film’s end that changes his entire family.Īs Thomas and director George Tillman Jr. Starr’s uncle Carlos (Common), a black police officer, navigates his internalized racism a peaceful “Justice for Khalil” protest escalates to a violent riot. Sprinkled throughout the narrative are moments where the internalized anger and fear on the part of black communities give way to damaging situations.
Shakur, who often combined his hip-hop with activism, said that “THUG LIFE” stands for “The Hate U Give Little Infants F***s Everybody,” a mentality that Khalil especially takes to heart.
The rapper’s concept of “THUG LIFE” inspired the book’s title and is featured prominently throughout the film. The extent to which this film succeeds in portraying their experiences is beyond this reviewer’s capacity to determine (it would be inaccurate and irresponsible not to acknowledge how race has influenced this reviewer’s perspective as a non-black person), but it certainly creates a more visceral cinematic experience for better or worse.Īn additional lens into race relations stems from a real-life source: Tupac Shakur. To many, however, these images echo a reality that does not end once the credits roll. “ The Hate U Give” has the capacity to resonate as an exercise in empathy and prolonged discomfort, depicting the trauma that Starr and the Garden Heights community experience time and time again. The normalcy of such conversations within black families may come across as tragic and bewildering to some or painfully familiar to others.
#STARR FROM THE HATE YOU GIVE MOVIE#
Reactions to this scene throughout the movie theater reflect the diversity of who is watching it. The film establishes a determined, somber tone in its first moments, when ten-year-old Starr and her younger siblings receive “the talk” from her father Maverick (Russell Hornsby) about police encounters and the tenets of the Black Panther Party platform. “ The Hate U Give” may be young adult fiction, but it speaks painfully to today’s lived reality for black Americans. The circumstances of Khalil’s murder are all-too familiar: Unarmed black man is killed by a white police officer, and the legal system fails to deliver due justice. The real tragedy of the story is not the violence and trauma itself, but the predictability of the narrative. She must also contend with the vitriol of an All Lives Matter mentality expressed by her white friend Hailey (Sabrina Carpenter). The two versions of Starr collide when she witnesses the shooting of her friend Khalil (Algee Smith) by a white police officer and must decide whether or not to testify, putting herself and her family at risk. Starr’s home life visually and emotionally contrasts with the blue-toned, uniform-clad, rich, white-dominated world of her private high school, where she tempers her speech and mannerisms to steer clear of stereotypes despite the blatant appropriations that surround her. A code-switching chameleon of self-expression jumping between diametric worlds, her life in Garden Heights is saturated with warm tones, the familiarity of neighborhood and dilapidated buildings with priceless sentimental value. “The Hate U Give,” a cinematic adaptation of Angie Thomas’ bestselling novel of the same name, graphically addresses the Black Lives Matter movement through the eyes of a young black woman, Starr Carter (Amandla Stenberg). Content warning: This article discusses violence.
0 kommentar(er)
