The Hate U Give (2018) is George Tillman Jr.'s film based on the book The Hate U Give, by Angie Thomas. Directed and produced by Tillman, the film was written by Audrey Wells, shot by Mihai Mălaimare Jr., and stars Amandla Stenberg as Starr, Regina Carter as Lisa, Russell Hornsby as Maverick, and KJ Apa as Chris, Starr's boyfriend.
The film tells the story of Starr, a black high schooler who leads a double life as both a resident of the predominately black Garden Heights neighborhood and a student at the predominately white prep school, Williamson. One night, she goes to a party where she meets a childhood friend named Khalil. After the party, the two are pulled over by the police on their way home. In a tragic turn of events, Khalil is shot and killed by a white police officer, who mistakes a hairbrush Khalil is holding for a gun. In the wake of the tragedy, Starr decides to testify before a grand jury, but keeps her identity a secret, in order to avoid backlash from a local drug dealer who acted as Khalil's boss. Throughout the course of the film, Starr encounters more tragic events, and struggles to balance her identity as a black kid seeking justice with her relationships to her out-of-touch peers at school. Eventually, she finds her voice, speaks up, and is able to move on from the tragedy, having learned a great deal about injustice and herself.
Much like the novel on which it is based, The Hate U Give was met with critical acclaim upon release. At the time of writing, the film holds a 97% critic score on movie review aggregator site Rotten Tomatoes. In his review of the film for The New Yorker, Richard Brody wrote, "It's an explicitly political movie that advocates a manifestly progressive view of its subjects, but it does so with a varied emotional energy, a set of complex characters in uncertain situations, and a perspective that emphasizes the drama’s open-ended, trouble-filled engagement with society at large."
