The Hate U Give (2018)
Directed by George Tillman Jr.
Raised in a poverty-stricken slum, a 16-year-old girl named Starr now attends a suburban prep school. After she witnesses a police officer shoot her unarmed best friend, she's torn between her two very different worlds as she tries to speak her truth.
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5 films that influenced The Hate U Give
What critics say influenced The Hate U Give
While Tillman doesn't show the stylistic flair of Spike Lee, the movie embraces human complexity in a way reminiscent of his ground-breaking Do the Right Thing.
Similar to 1989’s “Do the Right Thing” or 2009’s “Fruitvale Station,” “The Hate U Give” is the kind of movie that comes along once every few years.
With all of that wrapped together, The Hate U Give could be remembered as this generation's Do The Right Thing.
From The Fault in Our Stars to The Hunger Games, girls have grown up inspired by the bravery of heroines fighting danger both ordinary and fantastical, through role models like the loving cancer patient Hazel Grace Lancaster (Shailene Woodley) or overnight warrior Katniss Everdeen (Jennifer Lawrence).
Stenberg (The Hunger Games, The Darkest Minds) never loses sight of how, self-possessed though Starr might be, she’s still just an insecure teenager.
The Pitch: An adaptation of Angie Thomas’ 2017 novel, The Hate U Give chronicles the troubled life of Starr Carter ( Amandla Stenberg , The Hunger Games).
That’s a whole lot of gospel truth to jam into a single film, but director Tillman Jr. ( Notorious , and producer on the underseen Roll Bounce ), working with the brilliant young actor Amandla Stenberg (Rue from The Hunger Games ), renders the plight of young, urban African-American kids and the (mostly) white “peace officers” who tend to shoot first and ask questions later, in starkly relatable terms.
Historically, Young Adult blockbuster successes have been famed for the unexpected darkness of their subject matter, whether it’s the dystopian ritual slaughter of The Hunger Games or the, um, dystopian ritual slaughter of The Maze Runner .
Stenberg, whose previous credits include other YA fare like “ The Hunger Games ” and “Darkest Minds,” carries the difficult part well, growing from a carefree teen to traumatized kid to a natural born leader before our eyes.
From The Fault in Our Stars to The Hunger Games, girls have grown up inspired by the bravery of heroines fighting danger both ordinary and fantastical, through role models like the loving cancer patient Hazel Grace Lancaster (Shailene Woodley) or overnight warrior Katniss Everdeen (Jennifer Lawrence).
After something of a comeback with the serious blockbusters “The Fault in Our Stars” (2014) and “Paper Towns” (2015), the genre has gone in a somewhat lighter direction this past year with “Love, Simon” and Netflix’s star-making “To All The Boys I’ve Loved Before.”
So many young adult adaptations fall short of expectations, but this one is up there with The Perks of Being a Wallflower and The Fault in Our Stars .
After something of a comeback with the serious blockbusters “The Fault in Our Stars” (2014) and “Paper Towns” (2015), the genre has gone in a somewhat lighter direction this past year with “Love, Simon” and Netflix’s star-making “To All The Boys I’ve Loved Before.”
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Historically, Young Adult blockbuster successes have been famed for the unexpected darkness of their subject matter, whether it’s the dystopian ritual slaughter of The Hunger Games or the, um, dystopian ritual slaughter of The Maze Runner .