The rage of her father, Maverick (Russell Hornsby), radiates off the screen as he is shoved against a glass window by two policemen, as is the sheer terror of Starr’s mother, Lisa (Regina Hall), when she sees that one of her children is about to be seriously harmed, and she has no power to stop it. Starr’s guttural sobs are enough to bring anyone to tears. The cast imbues the Carters with an empathy that makes their story all the more potent. Those watching share in Starr’s guilt - how many have complained about their own trivialities and turned their back on these issues? How many have stood by and watched, rather than stepped up as an ally? It is a reminder of how many people grapple with their trauma completely alone, not wanting to burden anyone with it yet incapable of living with it themselves.
Everyday realities such as going to school, eating breakfast, and playing basketball with friends suddenly feel impossible to Starr and to the audience, as Starr is dragged into a world where the trivialities of teenagedom no longer seem like naivetés, but rather insults to Khalil’s memory. shows Starr as she wakes up screaming, vomits repeatedly, and suffers horrible guilt and anxiety while being forced to cope with her trauma. While films such as “Patriots Day” or “Me Before You” tend to unintentionally glamorize real-life tragedies, “The Hate U Give” focuses on an unromantic depiction of grieving. The sheer normality of the prior scene contrasted with the brutality displayed in the next shows just how a single, close-minded judgement about an everyday situation can affect someone’s life in the worst way possible. This playful innocence makes the next scene all the more cruel, when Khalil (Algee Smith) is shot by a policeman as Starr witnesses helplessly, after the cop pulls him over for simply neglecting to use a turn signal and mistakes Khalil’s hairbrush as a gun. Even the scene leading up to the fateful shooting shows two teenagers shyly flirting, joking about Harry Potter references, bumping Tupac, and finally sharing a sweet kiss. The film’s strength lies in its ability to contrast the normalcy of the Carters’ family - established early on with the parents kissing at the dinner table while the kids act grossed out, and the younger brother peeing on the toilet seat and refusing to clean it up - with the horror of the situation they are thrust into. Starr struggles with whether or not to speak out about what happened, and what the effect will be on her community, her family, and her identity as a black woman. Both of Starr’s worlds come crashing down when her childhood friend is fatally shot by a white policeman. A visible tension underlines the film as Starr steps into a world where Black Lives Matter protests become excuses to get out of class.
The warm red and orange tones, loud colors, and slang of Garden Heights contrasts with the cold-feeling, sterile-white tone, and constrictions of Starr’s rich prep school. In “The Hate U Give,” the cinematography, sound, and dialogue help flip the stereotypical narrative. She grapples with her two identities: non-confrontational private school Starr, and Garden Heights Starr. Slang makes me hood,” 16-year-old Starr Carter (Amandla Stenberg) says about the stark difference between her and her prep-schoolmates.