Director John Singleton turns his focus to prestigious universities, asking pointed questions about how these institutions perpetuate, or at least turn a blind eye to, important social issues.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Jul 27, 2023

I felt like it was lengthy, and they could have chopped down some of this stuff while trying to appeal to everyone...Malik and Remy could have been the movie right there.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/5 | Sep 19, 2019

What is high...what is learning...yes it's a pretty decent cast, but it's all over the place, and I really wanted it to end.

Full Review | Original Score: 1/5 | Sep 19, 2019

It was too schematic, too didactic and too cliched to work.

Full Review | Original Score: C+ | May 10, 2019

Cole Hauser is chillingly effective as the white supremacist skinhead who reveals Rapaport's potential for violence, while Jennifer Connelly gives the most adult performance as a worldly-wise lesbian.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Apr 26, 2019

Good intentions, but dull and predictable.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/5 | Apr 26, 2019

Higher Learning sells its soul (and its brain) for overwrought melodrama.

Full Review | Feb 16, 2018

The film lapses into polarized melodrama but it's a handsome piece, displaying a fair understanding of our desperate need to belong.

Full Review | Jul 25, 2010

Singleton gets points for exposing the hypocrisy of "politically correct" institutions, but stilted dialogue and cardboard characterizations undermine the message.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Jul 25, 2010

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.

Full Review | Original Score: C | Jul 6, 2010

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

Full Review | Oct 18, 2008

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.

Full Review | Feb 9, 2006

There's some nice ideas and realistically felt characters here.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Dec 6, 2005

For anyone who's been to USC, it's a pretty hilarious parody of life there. If you take it as presented, however, it's over-dramatic and unbelievable.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Nov 3, 2005

Full Review | Original Score: 2/5 | Jun 26, 2005

Another tour-de-force for Singleton

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Mar 23, 2005

Full Review | Original Score: 2/5 | Jul 18, 2004

John Singleton at his most pretentious and preachy.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/5 | Jan 27, 2004

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Jan 24, 2004

...John Singleton's third (and best) film.

Full Review | Original Score: 3.5/4 | Aug 1, 2003