La Haine (1995)

There's a version of me that absolutely loves La Haine. He's nineteen, he's stoned, and he thinks this is the greatest thing he's ever seen. I remember that feeling vividly. Then there's the version of me who sat down to rewatch it years later as a sober adult with his girlfriend, and that lad had a significantly harder time of it.

Honestly? It's quite boring. I know that's a controversial thing to say about a film that gets thrown around in "greatest ever made" conversations, but very little actually happens across its runtime. The bones of the story, three young men from the banlieues killing time in the aftermath of a riot, is a premise that demands either relentless energy or deep character work to carry it. La Haine only fully delivers on one of those fronts.

That front is Hubert. Of the three central characters, he's the one I genuinely cared about. There's a real weight to him, a young man who can see exactly what his environment is doing to the people around him, who desperately wants out, and who you sense is probably not going to get what he deserves. It reminded me strongly of what I love about Boyz n the Hood, that same painful portrait of someone sharp enough to recognise the trap they're in but not quite free enough to escape it. It's a character type that works because it feels true, and it works here too.

Vincent, on the other hand, I simply couldn't root for. He's loud, reckless and self-destructive in a way that I suspect is meant to read as raw and authentic but just came across to me as exhausting. I get that he's a product of his circumstances, I get that the whole point is that these young men have been failed by every institution around them. But understanding a character and wanting to spend time with him are two different things, and I spent a fair chunk of the film waiting for him to leave the screen.

What the film does get absolutely right is its anger. The fury at police violence, at systemic neglect, at the way certain communities are left to rot on the edges of a city that couldn't care less about them is as sharp now as it was when this came out in the mid-nineties. That's either a tribute to the filmmaking or a damning indictment of how little has changed, probably both. The film doesn't feel dated in that respect at all. If anything it feels more current than it should.

The black and white photography is striking, I'll give it that. There's a real eye at work here for composition and contrast. And the pacing does build some genuine tension in its final act, enough to make the ending land with the gut-punch it's going for. It's just that getting there requires a lot of patience, and I'm not sure the film earns every slow stretch it puts you through.

Three stars. I think the first time I watched it, the altered state I was in did some of the film's heavy lifting for it. Sober, it's a well-intentioned, frequently striking piece of work with a brilliant character at its centre and a message that still matters. But it's also slow, and its most prominent character is a chore to be around. I'd rewatch it for Hubert alone, if I'm being honest. The rest of it I could take or leave.

Rating: ★★★½  | Year: 1995  | Watched: 2025-04-13

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Where to watch

Watch in the UK
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