Home Show The Hate U Give
Rob, Chad, and Don review director George Tillman Jr.'s The Hate U Give, starring Amandla Stenberg as Star Carter, a high school student who witnesses a police shooting and must decide whether to testify publicly or stay silent. Don praises Stenberg's acting and cinematography but criticizes the film's heavy-handed political messaging and one-sided perspective, which he felt included unnecessary jabs at police and white society.
About this episode
Key takeaways
- Amandla Stenberg delivers an emotionally complex performance as a girl navigating two worlds—wealthy private school and her lower-income neighborhood—that could earn awards recognition
- The film presents a morally ambiguous shooting incident that forces the protagonist and her family to weigh the consequences of public testimony versus silence
- Strong supporting cast including Regina Hall, Common, Anthony Mackie, and Algee Smith, though Common appears in limited scenes
- Cinematography effectively contrasts the protagonist's two worlds through visual representation of low-income and wealthy areas
- The political messaging is pronounced and leans heavily one-sided, which may alienate viewers with different perspectives on policing and racial issues
Q&A
Who is the main character and what is her central conflict?
Star Carter, played by Amandla Stenberg, witnesses a police shooting and must decide whether to testify in a grand jury while her family weighs the risks of going public versus staying silent.
How does the film represent the protagonist's dual identity?
Through narration and visual contrast, Star switches between her 'school face' and 'home face,' attending a wealthy private school while living in her lower-income neighborhood where her father runs a business and wants her rooted in community roots.
What is Don's overall assessment of the film?
Don recommends it to some audiences at an afternoon theater showing due to strong acting and cinematography, but won't watch it again personally because the political messaging and one-sided perspective detracted from the story.
Read Transcript
Oh Oh oh yeah greetings empire member and or members it's going on drop you boy I don't know what that means but welcome if you're hearing the sound of my voice it means the following conditions have been met you've checked out the clubhouse podcast at least once in your life which we appreciate but it also means it's since this isn't our normal Sunday show it's time for another show this would be number 428 welcome my name is Rob I am the executive producer of the clubhouse podcast you're one stop shop where all things pop culture live every Sunday night 70s from four Pacific and I figured out that the what we're going to talk about is an acronym all on my own but I'm not alone for this episode sitting across from me in the co-host chair as he tends to do from time to time is my co-host and a man who likes to let the hate flow through him he is Chad welcome sir I think I had the same epiphany you did what I saw on the side of a bus today I was like well played well played rounding out the day is the official fact checker of the show and the only person in the room at scene the movie we're about to talk about so we're going to rely on his expertise here you may know him is fun don go but his mom and I'm down for it I'm going to call him down for what's up sir what is that a corner thing you talked about an acronym oh you knew it was going to happen like you can't see you were expecting that to happen you can't say it I just hope for the best and I'm there are certain things I know I know as the sun will rise in the east and set in the west professional wrestling is scripted and Don will shoot the wheels off within the first minute and a half yep like those those things happen and I'm your boy you have a cake that says I don't have it anymore that's a good thing though they don't say nothing it says I got the pinback as he said he would okay okay okay well you know it's that that panman a lot to take the black called men's a lot to take the black cauldron back just put it in a tupperware container next time for the love of me whatever we do one of these it is to review something and this is no exception director George Tillman Jr. he's done some some work on power Luke Cage this is us if you remember the Dwayne Johnson Opus faster he directed that as well men of honor he directed notorious okay directs a brand new film that's got a lot of buzz around it it's called the hate you give for sort of this whole thing yes I got think Josh and her best friends allied in a great market we love our vendors our vendors are some of our favorite people on the planet they let us see movies and stuff early so we can talk to you guys about them and tell you our honest opinions so you've got our Mandela Stenberg is the star of this she plays star Carter and she she lives in a lower-income family her parents own a business and she has two brothers and given the fact that her father owns his own business he scrapes together all he can to send them to private school so she really lives in two different worlds if you know what I mean right well one night she's out driving around with one of her friends Kaleel played by algae Smith you might remember him number one from Detroit he was one of the singing kids he was also a Ralph Trezvant in the new edition oh gosh yes okay yeah and they get pulled over and then one thing leads to another things get out of control as she is witness to an incident okay so it then becomes as I've read I mean don't see the film but this is just what I've read it becomes one of those her parents are she and her parents are torn because she is a material witness but do they go public with their story and risk the consequences there and or do they not and risk the consequences there in from the people in their own community right there's been a lot of talk about this film I'm interested I mean I know Don's thoughts because I've read them because he did his written review currently located at WWW dot the clubhousepodcast.com that's our website but for people that don't get the opportunity to read Don's thoughts that's why we do these audio reviews to if this premiered this year at the Toronto Film Festival too much acclaim is based on Angie Thomas's book so let's go Don all right so I know you said incident but this shows in the trailer so I'm not giving this way it was a shooting right okay so and that says that on the M did as well yeah so I mean I'm not giving anything away there correct and here's here's the thing they want her to testify in the grand jury who does the like the DA okay so all right and that's the thing saying do we stay private till then we don't we want to keep her hush us keep her you know kind of really sheltered from what could really happen because this turns to national issue kind of like to trade on Martin or something like that correct ones one of those things I'm with you the problem is her dad taught her young keep the hands on the on the dash kind of that black panthery thing because he have even since the beginning of the film I want you read the ten rules of the black panther so her father was an activist yeah you can have it who owns a store but says I want you to live in our neighborhood because this is our roots even though it has the money to get out he wants to live there but is that is Maverick her father who's at the brother no but I'm sure one of her brothers are supposed to yeah yeah Maverick Russell Horn's Bees her brother police the Carter is Regina Hall her plays her mother and then commonplace her also common is her uncle yeah who's an officer he's an officer in the same department okay that where the shooting is taken by by that department Anthony Mackie also in this KJ also in this and Mackie plays like the drug dealer who has a history with her father okay in her father did time and stuff like that so the thing is he wants them to be rooted in their community he doesn't want to move out but he also wants them to go to school because he knows in that local right now we just have a service let's get to the crux so the promise it turns into a real wishy washy and I don't give anything away that's the hard part right of do you go public because there's gonna be there's there's no backlash either way either way and people are saying stuff people are making accusations you got both sides on this saying back the blue or you got the people saying this is a wrongful shooting now in my humble opinion from what happened would it be what you call illegal shooting yes but would it be you know questionable yes so and that's where it really gets in that crux of that situation let me ask you this down does there's another movie that's similar to this in the same vein earlier this year called blind spotting would you compare the two I think I saw that what about the two guys that worked for the moving company together we saw together would you compare this to that because if there's similarities between the two there is a officer involved shooting one of them is a witness to it and has to deal with that would you compare them yeah it's close to that but this one in blind spotting it was a unlawful shooting I mean it was just yeah this was kind of in the there's no ambiguity yeah this one has ambiguity and it's she goes to school ambiguity ambiguity but in her school the problem is that she's in a school with a lot of wealthy kids a lot of white people stuff like that and she has to keep her mouth shut when they start talking about this thing saying because no one knows she was they don't know she was the witness okay so that's where she's gets so conflicted in this now so this runs almost two hours and 15 minutes yeah little long okay it kept me interested but it's like if they took the long road to get to the to the let's say the ice cream parlor but when you got to the parlor it was still good it was ice cream was still good but it's like man that long that road to get there so it was more about the destination than the journey would you say yeah it's it's just a story till and then after what happened now here let me get an acting first okay common he's in about six scenes a couple some are just a common big fan of common Mac he's in there about six seven scenes he plays a pivotal role of trying to keep keep your daughter's mouth shut because she's saying stuff about my business and he's the local drug right so the acting by most of the the cast is good he got icons like hall you got Mackie you got these people in their part for the course on this this is gonna be this won't be their lead out rule but it's they do not disappoint at all good here's my deal with Stimberg incredible incredible incredible incredible I've heard a lot of talk about her do I see her name in talk when it comes to multiple awards next year yes wow I would not surprise me okay if she's one of those five finalists in February it would not surprise me on this would it surprise you if she wasn't yeah because of the matter too okay okay no that's fair the role I don't know if she had a control of what her role is to be but she played the role well because she had to go through emotional up and down up and down the stress on her that you can imagine just trying to keep your mouth shut on something which was a very tough situation for her mm-hmm I look at the film going oh my god I could see a best actress not in multiple awards next year easily okay so she blew it out of the park all you would be just like she did it um and for those who don't know who she is in the Hunger Games she played the little girl row who is one of the contestants in the Hunger Games I think her name was Ro I'm looking it up yeah but she was yeah she was room she's also recently in the darkest minds yeah so she's she's kind of making skins of the game um but she plays a really good girl who's conflicted between the two worlds because she serves in the being a lot that's her narration talking about her life and say now put on my school face now I put on my home face now put school face now I'm into my neighborhood face that kind of thing even steer switch outfits I put it to you this and this she's very very young shout I'll put it to you this way if she was a year older she would have been born the year you and I met oh wow so yeah she's a youngster I do recognize her I remember from that film everything everything she's like the very very that's very recent as well last year cinematography fee was really good um bit of mood of the the film really well okay I showed like the low-income areas really well some high high influence areas very well so the the contrast between her two worlds was represented very strongly and especially with the school good good here's my problem all right and I know I'm not the the target audience that's that's a that's a fair assessment yes okay but I still go into this with an open mind okay good my problem is I think it's geared to a certain this film is geared to us members of a certain it's for a demographic it is yeah I mean you can tell that just by this you know there is there is there is the aim of attempting to connect with a certain demographic is there a political message in this oh yes I mean huge they really try to push the political message and they kind of try to put it through a one-sided view I hate to say it kind of like in a Michael Moore way or Dessousa way or something he's trying to get their political point across big time there were things in this movie and it's just saying do you know what okay I'm gonna say it I'm a Caucasian person I think it took some jabs at the white society in some points okay it really takes a jab at the police department so if you're one of those people that backs the blue watch out this may offend you okay I mean it's not pulling punches and it's not saying hey we're sorry but there was some stuff that was so unnecessary I thought that was not needed some jabs that were just that was in call for they should not have done that that personally that turned me off big time you know and you're here to get entertained and to pass a story and to make you think but I think the political message was way too much and it took jabs when it was not needed big time okay anything else you want to cover for we get to the final analysis no all right then let's do it the way we do the final analysis chat any questions you had by the way no no he answered them all all right the way we do the final analysis on the show we're not gonna give you thumbs up thumbs down letters numbers anything like that we're gonna I'm gonna ask Don up to two questions question number one is would he see this film again and stick around because I know what he's fixing to say and this is gonna get interesting the answers know that we're done here but if he answers yes then my follow-up question for Don would be how far would he willing to go to do so from the best of the best of the worst of the best here's how it rolls full price at a theater down to a twilight showing down to a matinee down to early morning on a weekend down to second one at the dollar theater down to actually leaving his house to get it from red box down to him streaming on Netflix down to him just waiting for it on cable Don yeah would you see the hate you give again this is the weird part this is the weird part personally due to my career in my personal career no okay no however however but this is one of those rare circumstances where I personally get conscious cannot watch it again but I will still recommend some people seeing it at what point depends who you are if you're a midterm person just let's just give an average like a afternoon afternoon theater so just not not all the way but it's in the ballpark yeah it's still good acting is incredible okay but the political message in a dragging a little bit but the political message killed me I will not see it again personally I haven't do my morals I'm sorry it is George shillman juniors that hate you give for this whole thing yes sir we got think our best friends allied integrated marketing we love our vendors they take care of us so much they let us do cool stuff and see movies so we can talk to you guys about them that being said gentlemen let's do the plugs visit our website the aforementioned www dot the clubhouse podcast dot com find Don's written review there and so much more you can follow us on social media should you choose to do so Twitter is at clubhouse show everything else is the club house podcast all three words in that order you won't wind up somewhere else you can follow me on social media if you would like everything is yes that Rob Irvin that is spelled E R V I N I am at chat in PG 6 9 and I'm on Twitter at Fondongo F A N D O G O O and also email me at Don at clubhousepodcast dot com email Don for information how we can come do a live show for you got one coming up very soon so get ready for that you can follow you can email me and follow me you know it's good just don't do it like literally like online school email me questions comments concerned so many go pound sand I am Rob at the clubhouse podcast dot com I am chat at the clubhousepodcast dot com Sherlock Parker's on Pinterest because we're morally obligated to say that Jules Walman kept the house waiting on her husband faith forward the house waiting on hers our live show at vocal studios go to vocal now V O K A L now also download the app live every Sunday seven Eastern for Pacific your one-stop shop for all things pop culture and like rate review subscribe all that good stuff so until next time for Don chat in the empire I'm Rob clubhouse is close you can still have Brittany Palmer involved this you could have been a teacher at the school I'm