I watch a minimum of 100-115 movies each month, easy. That's over 1200 per year. Seeing that many movies has taught me to appreciate the wide variety of styles and artistic expression that make up the many movies released year after year. The world's oldest profession is the Shaman, the Witch Doctor, the Healthcare worker. The world's second oldest profession is storytelling.
15 year old Zelda Adams in the lead role of this little known gem recites her lines as if she were reading poetry, beautiful poetry. Her eloquent cadence, rhythm, and tone gave the movie a haunting quality usually polished and performed by actors several years her senior. Her delivery reminded me of the more reflective stories seen in movies like 'The Ballad of Buster Scruggs' for example, and was a treat to experience. I wonder if the people who trash the hard work that goes into making movies intended to deliver a message or cause the viewer to think can explain exactly what the Director of Photography does or the purpose of an Art Director and why a Movie Director will take in the added expense of hiring them. I can't imagine someone more knowledgeable about the technical side of movie making would give this move a 1, a 2, or a 3. The cinematography and art direction of 'Hatred' is vivid and relevant throughout the movie and for me a noticeable treat.
I can't say enough about this movie. I enjoyed it thoroughly. My lone gripe about the movie is that I that I wished it were longer than 59 minutes. I would have liked to have seen another 20 minutes and could have easily settled in on an additional 40. It was written and delivered that well. Perhaps the not so obvious beauty of this story is its simplicity and focus on the main characters to be able to say and relate so much in a so short a period of time.
I'd recommend this to anyone who likes a good movie beyond the usual Hollywood extravaganzas of X-Men and Marvel Studios, and challenge anyone who takes the time to watch 'Hatred' to imagine they're sitting around a camp fire in Ice Age Europe, or the Serengeti a few thousand years ago, after supper, and listening a tribal elder tell a similar unusual and scary story.
