Alternate Best Supporting Actor 2018: Russell Hornsby in The Hate U Give

Russell Hornsby did not receive an Oscar nomination, despite being nominated and winning a few critic awards, for portraying Maverick 'Mav' Carter in The Hate U Give.

The Hate U Give follows a teenage girl, Starr (Amanda Stenberg)'s, struggle after witnessing the death of her best friend by a the hands of a police officer. The film certainly has many more than decent elements however struggles a bit by funneling all of these through YA trappings.

Russell Hornsby, who made a fine impression a couple years ago as Denzel Washington's much older son in Fences, plays Mav Carter the father to Stenberg's Starr. A role similar in intention to Laurence Fishburne's Furious Styles in Boyz n the Hood.  A man who has made mistakes in his past and intends to make sure his family survives and thrives. This is made abundantly clear through the film's striking opening scene where Mav outlines how to handle when being pulled over by the police. Hornsby's in turn makes quite the impression in this scene delivery through this monologue with a strict intensity. He creates the right sense of the danger of it through his hollow method, though shows within it the sort of conviction with his work to support the sense that all for the good of children. Hornsby lays it down bluntly with all the seriousness of a man preparing them to survive most of all, and doesn't even make a glint of anything else. Within this also there is this sort of inherent harshness he brings within his presence that effectively suggests a man who has had his own hard life, and that this too is part of this point blank conditioning. Hornsby in his eyes captures this certain weight of a difficult life as he explains this, making quite the powerful first impression in the film.

Hornsby naturally reduces that overt intensity in his next scene, though it is always something inherent in his performance, effectively so. This is as he manages to convey the loving father who tries to give his children a blunt truth for their lives. Hornsby brings this warmth just as this rather subdued yet potent quality in the character. Hornsby almost makes this the exceptions in a sense as these moments of ease when he can find them to show his affection for his children openly. Hornsby finds the right balance in this and does a particularly good job of in finding just brief subtle moments when watching his children this sense of an unconditional love. This is always intertwined with the harshness of the man's past and how that has influenced Mav's present view. Hornsby again though portrays well the way this informs a certain adamant passion in the character. This is as we see it as he explains his views of the drugs being pushed into the neighborhood by outside forces where Hornsby's delivery accentuates this as another blunt truth to Mav who wishes to instill an understanding to this perspective in his children. These moments could fall into posturing, but Horsnby really ground it well through his performance which always makes it this expression of this internalized experience of the man.

After the inciting incident occurs Hornsby's is perhaps too much of a secondary character much of the time. Every moment he appears though is a strong one due to his devoted work. One of the best moments being when he comforts his daughter from a nightmare after the shooting. Hornsby's great in the scene as he plays it more like a soldier comforting a fellow comrade with PTSD than just a concerned father. He importantly doesn't overplay this though again making it rational by making the state of Mav such a vivid one. This is not shown to be always a positive thing as we see him fight with his wife (Regina Hall), and shows his own limits of tolerance when Starr brings home a white boyfriend. The former scenes Hornsby brings the right determination again within the spirit of the character that he attaches to a conviction to protect his home, much as he protects his family, that he shows to be stubborn though based within an earnest belief. The latter Hornsby is great in as it could've been a moment that easily devolved to some over the top act. Thankfully Hornsby realizes this so well as he portrays not so much a disappointment in his daughter, but rather in himself in his expression of the scene as one of self-loathing surrounding the mistakes of his past. I wish the film had focused more on his character as his scenes are the best in the film. The film gets unfortunately a little muddled in its portrayal of the conflict between the family and an old drug dealer acquaintance of Mav's where that YA influence becomes evident. This in that the drug dealer, despite being played by the reliable Anthony Mackie, feels more like a YA villain than a realistic menace. This simplifies the interactions of the conflict and unfortunately makes most of Hornsby's late scenes pretty limited in scope and potential for him. Now he's still very good in every moment he does have and brings as much of a reality and weight to even the more contrived moments. This is especially in the scene of the "giving hate" speech, that while it seems more reminiscent of something more like a speech from the Hunger Games, than something from Boyz N the Hood, in its approach. Hornsby's though is so very genuine in his switch from an intense hate to an adamant love that he does make up for that to an extent. Hornsby's consistently grants an honesty to these moments even as the narrative becomes a little unwieldy in its overarching tone. His performance though is a consistently potent element in the film that is frankly of a greater film than the one he appears in.