Higher Learning (1995)

This one got lost somehow in the years between School Daze and Dear White People, but it's well worth rediscovering. Multi-story structure played out by a fine ensemble cast is perhaps a bit too schematic and tries to do a bit too much, but Singleton brings the same empathy he displayed in Boyz in the Hood (and a welcome returning cast member, Ice Cube) to Higher Learning. Plus, his filmmaking smarts have improved, if anything, as several very well thought-through sequences demonstrate (particularly the melded-together love-making episode). What Singleton accomplishes, very movingly, is to convey the struggles that college-age people have figuring out who they are and what they are here for. The pain of being midway between adulthood and adulthood itself is always right there on the surface -- especially for the black characters, of course, since they are adjusting to a world much more directly controlled by the white man than they had previously experienced, but for the white characters too, one most tragically. Higher Learning accomplishes this at least as well as the two films mentioned earlier. Biggest asset: Omar Epps. His performance as Malik has a depth and emotional weight that goes beyond the rest of the cast (who are all just fine) and makes clear how much is at stake for him -- and everybody -- in the drama of college.

At Columbus University there is about to be a race war,, blacks vs the skin heads,, the skin heads also hate Jews, gay, and lesbian. Omar Epps plays a college Professor,, Tyra Banks does a good job in her role.. Kristy Swanson also did okay,, there is a "rape" scene in the movie,, but on to other stuff like how the "Skinheads" were aloud to roam free after beating up a gay couple,, sit down and eat lunch just like nothing happened. Film takes a turn with the violence being served up, and it hits you over the head like a hammer, there are also sexuality issues, in the movie,, a teacher battling to try and get thru to the kids he is teaching,, film shows college life with black and whites trying to do the best they can to get along,, very interesting look at racism,, not to be missed, just don't take everything too seriously, as the filmmaker took a lot of liberties,, with what actually would happen in real life.

This was a good movie. I don't understand the reviews that it was skewed in its portrayals of whites as the villains and the blacks as the downtrodden victims who just won't take anymore. I personally think that it was very balanced in that area. There were stupid white people and stupid black people. What I would think is the most skewed is it's portrayal of the men as the villains and the women as the angelic do gooders. I think it ignored the fact that women can be just as awful, but tend not to be as outwardly violent, but I guess you can't have it all in one movie or else it would have been like 5 hours long. It showed Remmy's decent in a sympathetic light and in Fudge we saw that entitlement thinking in the black mentality is just as harmful as it is in the white mentality. Ultimately the only difference I saw in the white supremacist group and in Fudge's group was their skin color. Black or white, they were ALL red- blooded, self-entitled, American idiots. I thought that point was brilliantly made in the movie.

Hard to believe the extremes of the reviews of this film. It's either genius or crap. I found it somewhere in between, and I have to say I enjoyed it, owing mostly to Omar Epps. I believe he's one of the best actors in America right now, and his performance in this movie really made it watchable as far as I'm concerned. Many of the characters were not developed well, and were two-dimensional at best. Rappaport's character, and in fact all the white supremacists, were mere cut-outs and actually painful to watch. I didn't get the good guy/bad guy (name your race -- I think it depends on who's reviewing) theme at all. I think Epps was the protagonist and naturally he was shown in a better light than most of the other characters, black or white. There was some intelligent dialog and some inane dialog. However, it was overall an interesting film and I'm glad I saw it. Not perfect by any means, and with its share of clichés, but a good film nonetheless.