Deprived of work, respect and a healthy community, the buddies form an alternative family among themselves. Unlike the spate of American ” ‘hood movies” we’ve seen in the past five years, which romanticize their gangsta protagonists at the same time that they deplore them, Hate has a plaintive, sympathetic chord that runs beneath the anger. It shows us the foolishness of its characters as it mourns their inevitable tragedy. — Edward Guthmann