I first saw La Haine (Hate) in the theatre, when I was in high school. With the exception of Style Wars, I think it may be the best “hip-hop film” I’ve ever seen. It tracks three friends in the suburban ghettos of Paris, and anticipates some of the racial and class unrest that we’ve seen there in the past few years. It’s about hip-hop, and youthful alienation, and race, and all that stuff, and is very powerful.
It came out yesterday on Criterion DVD, and I think you should, at the very least, rent it.
Above: one of the film’s most remarkable shots, which apparently was achieved using a remote-control helicopter.