Singleton hit with the flop gunDirector’s ‘Learning’ flounders
without discernable purpose
By Michael Horowitz
Daily Bruin Senior Staff
Is it better to make a meaningless movie that fails miserably or
a film that tries to say something and fails miserably?
John Singleton would like you to believe the latter. It’s the
best he’s gonna get.
Hype is high for his third film, especially since we’re at UCLA,
or should we say Columbus University? Yet people who expected the
foolish Trojan director to hearken back to Boyz n’ the Hood should
have remembered Poetic Justice. Singleton, at the end of a
three-film deal, leaves it harder than ever to figure out what his
possible strengths are. Storytelling? Nope. Dialogue? Nah.
Characters? Hardly. Acting direction? Don’t think so. Camera work?
Well …
Of the three interweaving storylines in Higher Learning, only
one is even partially worthwhile. That’s the tale of Malik Williams
(Omar Epps,) former high school track star who’s under more
pressure than ever in college. When talking through Epps, Singleton
is in his element and the film  for minutes  rings
true. Through his relationship with girlfriend Deja (Tyra Banks),
his student-teacher relationship with Fudge (Ice Cube) and his
student-Confucius relationship with Professor Phipps (Laurence
Fishburne) Williams learns lessons that aren’t in the
textbooks.
Unfortunately, the character of Orange County girl Kristen
Connor (Kristy "A female Keanu Reeves  but worse" Swanson) is
a farce. Singleton serves up some musical shorthand to compensate
for Swanson’s blatant refusal to learn how to act; when Connor’s in
control Liz Phair plays, when she’s a victim it’s time for Tori
Amos.
That means lots of Tori Amos, because Connor is a victim a lot.
After her shallow friends split up with her at a frat party (subtly
conjured up by John "T & A" Singleton), she gets date-raped to
"Losing My Religion," one of the worst covers Amos, usually
intriguing, has ever attempted. Is this a musical reference to the
better-written "90210?"
Anyway, Connor ends up experimenting with lesbian Taryn
(Jennifer Connelly), who we know must be a lesbian since Singleton
has heavy-handedly cast her as the head of a women’s group.
Connor’s also keeping Wayne (Jason "I’m in the new Bon Jovi video"
Wiles) on the side, just to appear tentative. Who will win Connor’s
heart? Singleton doesn’t care, he quickly sells out this storyline
altogether, because in Higher Learning the only question that
really matters is what the students of Columbus University think of
African Americans.
Remy (Michael Rapaport) doesn’t like anyone who’s not white. Or
at least, it’s pretty easy for the skinheads to recruit him because
he just can’t relate to anyone. This is illustrated and
re-illustrated and hammered into everyone’s heads again and again
through countless scenes of Remy not relating to people Â
including one time where he asks Connor’s rapist how she was in
bed. Doh! Credit Singleton for making you feel for the rapist.
Anyway, Remy’s not a stable guy. It takes about a 10 minutes of
hate speech before he whips out a laser-guided 9-mil, and in a
little bit he’s standing on Haines learning the fine points of
rooftop sniping. Any kind of sympathy one could possibly have for
his poorly sketched caricature, oops, character is eroded by the
ten Swastikas that make it into every room he walks into.
Ambiguity, John? Nah, it’s "Mein Kampf" time!
Oh well, at least this will all have a point. Right? Right,
John?! In all the scattering bodies there has to be a clear
message, right John?!?!? Don’t get your hopes up. Other than
"After-School Special" moments of preaching, Singleton’s film has
no cohesive meaning. He tries to represent multicultural tension
with a pissed-off skinhead emptying a rifle into innocent masses
and is undone by the narrow focus his multiple-storyline structure
tried to avoid.
The only bright spots in this melee of poor film making are Ice
Cube, always the most watchable person on screen, a fun credit
sequence and a campus with little construction. And if you enjoy
any of these performers, don’t worry about them suffering from too
much direction. With the exception of Rapaport, Singleton has
typecast with a fury, i.e. they’re playing the same old characters
you’ve seen and loved before.
Singleton shows off his light hand by typing the word "Unlearn"
into a frame of the American flag at the film’s end. This may be a
movie you want to unwatch.
FILM: Higher Learning Directed by John Singleton. Starring Omar
Epps, Laurence Fishburne, Kristy Swanson.