Higher Learning (1995)

reviewed by
Eugene R Ahn


                              HIGHER LEARNING
                       A film review by Eugene R. Ahn
                        Copyright 1995 Eugene R. Ahn

Directed by John Singleton Starring Malik (Omar Epps), Kristen (Kristy Swanson), Remy (Michael Rappaport), Professor Philps (Laurence Fishburne), Taryn (Jennifer Connelly), Fudge (Ice Cube) etc

HIGHER LEARNING searches for the meaning of American Identity in an age of rich diversity on a college campus, Columbus. The problem with any movie or novel in dealing with such a subject is that the good intentions of the director or writer are subverted by the almost inevitable simplifications required to fit the art material into the standard time length or page length. John Singleton does not escape these pitfalls and the only saving grace would have been excellent characterizations.

Singleton, who also wrote the screenplay, nearly pulls it off. In the first half hour, he introduces us to the three main protagonists: Malik, Kristen, Remy--three ... freshpersons who step onto campus, trying to fit in to varying degrees. Malik, despite initial rebellion, decides to pursue track for a scholarship to stay in school, but battles resentment from his peers for being just another "slave" for the school. Kristen quickly associates with sorority-type party-goers, but after being date-raped, she withdraws and is thrown into disequilibrium. Feminist, Taryn (played perfectly by Jennifer Connelly, who no doubt benefited from her "higher learning" experience at Yale University) helps Kristen find her new identity. Finally, Remy, a seemingly-innocuous midwestern neophyte, struggles to mix in with the others, but fails completely.

Remy's character is the most crucial to the flow and overall effectiveness of the movie. His character drives the plot forward. Rappaport does an amazingly unscripted job of conveying the turmoil within Remy as he slowly becomes alienated from his peers. Remy doesn't know who he is from the beginning. And it is clear under Singleton's direction and script that Remy is carefully watching his diverse peers, trying to find ways to be "similar" and therefore accepted. An engineering major, he tries to be "cool" at a frat party by complimenting Kristen's date-rapist for "scoring" which obviously gets him villianized. But there is clearly a double standard here as the frat members, in earlier scenes, were high-fiving each other when Kristen and her friends started to get wasted drunk at a bar (not to say these two actions are of equal magnitude).

But it simply is too haphazard and too quickly that Remy shifts from alienated loner to enthusiastic skinhead. Besides being booted from his apartment (roommate Fudge played his music too loud) and being dissed by his other roommate for a game of pool, Remy sure gives up rather quickly. The Kurtz-like Nazi leader befriends him, and the skinheads immediately welcome him to their ranks without question, to which Remy says thanks and shaves his head. Singleton pushes Remy's character too far into a Psycho-type killer role and it was completely unnecessary as well as destructive. It crossed HIGHER LEARNING from the cerebral and dramatic to the cartoonish and cheesy in one fell swoop. Remy, as he was developed in the movie, never possessed enough confidence to be such a determined mass murderer. Singleton does show how Malik unknowingly pushes Remy further into a pit of frustration and self-hate, but after setting up the conflicts fairly well Singleton really botches it up with an all-or-none response from Remy.

The essence of what the movie discusses are these double standards. The virtue of avoiding violence and direct confrontation, the powerlessness of those who become victims to violence, the temptation to retaliate with greater violence. Which is greater empowerment and self-determination? Malik running for a track scholarship or Fudge withdrawing in disgust as a matter of principle from what he perceives to be a racist society?

Singleton clearly favors the former. Malik's girlfriend angrily asks him, "When are you going to stop pointing your finger at other people and start pointing at yourself?" He also shows how Fudge's polar-race world view is a self-fulfilling prophecy. But most importantly he shows why these self-evident truths are so hard to live by. Malik's rage, Remy's frustration (and Kristen's ... well, more on that later) are vividly presented.

Professor Philps (if you ignore the nearly comical accent) is well played by Fishburne who also appeared in Singleton's first movie BOYZ IN THE HOOD as Furious Styles. He plays a similar father figure, the "center" of the chaos that takes place around him as he provides sage but non-judgemental advice to his students ("In the real world, there are no handouts").

Finally, Kristen's development was another weak spot in the movie. Her trials bore little substance to the themes of the movie. After her trauma of date-rape she basically explores her affection for Taryn, finds gentle love with another guy (Oh look he uses condoms), and becomes a 60's peace nut (she plans a "peace festival" which becomes the site of Remy's violence). One of the beauties of Quentin Tarintino's PULP FICTION is the vivacious manner in which the unpredictable can happen to its characters, and as a result, a vastly entertaining movie was born. Many of the connections between its main characters were haphazard and random, and the movie never made apologies for doing so.

Here we have the opposite side of the spectrum. As the Malik/Remy conflict becomes the center of the plot, Kristen becomes more peripheral. Singleton tries to work her back into the midst of things by having her plan the 60's peace festival. Yet there are apologies written all over Kristen's contrived character. Singleton desperately tries to force her into a symbolic shaking of hands with Malik in the end and it just flops like dead fish. There were potential themes to be emphasized in Kristen's relationship with Taryn, which could have molded with the violence between Malik and Remy but that's all conjecture now.

Despite problems with two of the three protagonists, Singleton protrays college life very believingly. For the most part, the casting and acting is superb (Omar Epps, Ice Cube, Jennifer Connelly, Michael Rappaport in particular) and the soundtrack keeps the mood just right. The points I make about the two characters focus on the essential problem of this movie in which the movie has the tone of seriousness and importance, yet offers way too much cheese and cartoon convention. This movie is probably a star's worth more enjoyable for recent college graduates than its parent generation, and since I'm only two years separated from college....

***(out of 5)
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