Review of Higher Learning (1995) by Khris N — 27 Feb 2009

John Singleton's ability to delve into multi-issues and stories creates a superb drama in the most unusual of settings - a university campus. Headed by a superb cast including Michael Rapport, Jennifer Connelly, Ice Cube, Omar Epps, and Kristy Swanson, Higher Learning visualises freshman's first step into the new world, and the many issues and lessons they have to deal and learn to make it. From racial, sexual, political and personal, this movie engages these issues in a maze of superb acting and lines, with credit going to Laurence Fishburne as the Political Science lecturer who steals his screen slots with his thoughtful, powerful and engaging presence and lessons. Ice Cube is also a standout, playing a ghetto student, obviously entrenched in the black stigmata and social status, but showing that he is also a refined and poltically savvy individual with heart and a will to learn and build his own ideals and apply it to the world around him.

Watch this for a good insight into uni or college life and the many views from many sides - a movie which works to create understanding - and show that not everything that needs to be learnt is in a classroom.

For those who are willing to open their eyes to understanding and objectivity - but as Fishburne states: this isn't about objectivity - you have to make a stand.

Welcome to the real world.