The Hate U Give: Deserves Some Love! (HBO)

This film was released in 2018, but I didn't see it then.  The movie is based on the 2017 novel "The Hate U Give," by Angie Thomas (2017).  I think I was turned off by the title.  There is enough hate in the world, so why see a film that would just bum me out?  After all, I'm a "love and light" sort of guy.  The title, however, is only the first half of an important message: THUG LIFE – The Hate U Give Little Infants Fucks Everybody!  This was a phrase made popular by Tupac in the '90s. The film begins with Maverick Carter (Russell Hornsby) teaching his daughter, Starr, and her brother, Seven (Lamar Johnson), what to do if they are in a car and pulled over by the police.  Starr is only 9 years old at the time!  The movie then fast-forwards to when Starr (Amandla Stenberg) is 16.  Although her family lives in Garden Heights – a Black neighborhood with considerable drug use and violence – Starr and her siblings go to a prep high school in the wealthy white neighborhood of Williamson.  Starr is on the girls' basketball team.  She has a couple of close white friends and even a white boyfriend, Chris (K.J. Apa).  This is a difficult situation for Starr – she can't be too white in Garden Heights, and she can't be too Black in Williamson.  She calls herself Starr-1 and Starr-2.  She is losing touch with herself and having trouble forming her genuine identity. Starr goes to a party in Garden Heights and meets a childhood friend, Khalil (Algee Smith), who is now quite handsome.  Shots are fired at the party, they make a fast exit, and Khalil offers Starr a ride home.  I can't say any more about the plot without spoiling the film, but it's even more relevant now than it was when it was released.  Watching it was a powerful emotional experience for me, and I now have a better appreciation about how Black people feel after the George Floyd travesty. Amandla Stenberg is fantastic and I think she deserved an AA nomination, although she didn't get one.  (She was also great as Rue in "The Hunger Games" - 2012.)  Hornsby and the rest of the cast do a fine job, too, a credit to Director George Tillman Jr. This is a great movie, and it would have been in my 2018 Top 5 if I had seen it then.  It's a MUST-SEE!  It's on HBO, so you won't get stopped by the police on the way to see it!