Higher Learning 1995

Janet Maslin, New York Times: Everyone here, from beer-swilling white fraternity boys to rap-loving black students harassed by the campus police, can be judged at face value. Everyone is exactly what he or she seems. Read more

Kenneth Turan, Los Angeles Times: Presenting problems is not the same as dramatizing them successfully, and as strong as his message is, Singleton has not found the best way to deliver it. Read more

Owen Gleiberman, Entertainment Weekly: Despite some likable performances (Epps is especially winning), the drama in Higher Learning is constricted, hemmed in by Singleton's compulsion to view his characters as walking paradigms of racial and sexual politics. Read more

James Berardinelli, ReelViews: Despite excesses and missteps, there is still a wealth of digestible, thought-provoking material in Higher Learning. Read more

Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times: Thought-provoking. Read more

Mick LaSalle, San Francisco Chronicle: Higher Learning presents a profoundly uninspired and misguided piece that seems prompted by little more than a desire to make a Big Statement. Read more

Geoff Andrew, Time Out: A stylish, intelligent film-maker, Singleton interweaves the threads of his demographic tapestry with assurance, passion and a welcome awareness of the complexities of the college community's contradictory impulses towards integration and separatism. Read more

Todd McCarthy, Variety: Higher Learning has a great many things on its mind, which immediately places it in a rather exclusive category of American films these days. Read more

Desson Thomson, Washington Post: For every persuasive insight John Singleton brings to Higher Learning, his thoughtful but flawed movie about multiculturalism and racism, he throws in something equally disappointing. Read more