Cinematic Throwbacks: January 1995/2005

1995:

By 1995, my favorite filmmaker was easily John Singleton. I think I have been doing these blogs long enough now that I have touched on most of his early career. Poetic Justice had been the film that was the first time I was hugely anticipating a film because of its director. And I adored that film, so nothing changed.

But that film hadn't hit in quite the same way Boyz N The Hood had, so it was almost like he was back being the scrappy underdog.

Enter Higher Learning.

This was another just massively anticipated film for me. All I really knew about it was what I saw in the trailer, and probably seen snippets about in a couple of movie mags. It was not anticipated to be some big movie. It wouldn't have opened in January if it were.

I loved it. Even more than Boyz N The Hood. Even more than Poetic Justice. Even more than any other film I had ever seen to that point. Yes, Higher Learning was my favorite film of all time, for a while anyway.

Spoiler alert, it no longer holds that title. I'm not even 100% sure it's my favorite Singleton film even. But it is at worst a close second, and tops any list of the 90s most underrated gems.

This film steps out of south central Los Angeles and takes place at the fictional Columbus University,  intentionally left ambiguous about its location as it is meant as a microcosm of America itself. I'm not sure if it was the intent, but it is very much Singleton's version of a Spike Lee film, complete with characters talking directly into the camera at points  

We follow a large cast, but primarily 3, all incoming freshmen. 

Malik (Omar Epps), a scholarship track star.

Remy (Michael Rapaport), an anti-social kid from Idaho.

Kristen (Kristy Swanson), a naive girl from the suburbs.

Each gets exposed to a multicultural campus environment, and each ends up befriending someone who really alters their own personality.

Malik starts hanging out with Fudge (Ice Cube), the rather militant 6th year student. 

Kristen befriends Taryn (Jennifer Connelly), a feminist and a lesbian.

And most crucially, the loner Remy falls in with a skinhead group, led by a chilling Cole Hauser.

The great cast also has Regina King as Kristen's roommate, and the great Laurence Fishburne as a no-bullshit-accepted professor. And it was very important to teenage me that Tyra Banks had a big role as Malik's track star love interest. She's actually not bad in the movie. 

Tensions rise in this melting pot, especially once the skinheads are introduced. Ironically, Singleton got ripped at the time for having neo-Nazis be such a big part of the film. Well, they fucking run our country now. The film was ahead of its time. 

The whole film is a message film, of course, but exceptionally well written. I especially love all the scenes with Fishburne, who really cooks in this thing.

It's a serious film, but really funny at points too. And then the climax is super emotional. And again, Singleton got ripped for having a scene where the cops assault a black guy while letting the actual bad WHITE guy go. Well, time has proven this accurate too.

The cast is stellar. This is peak Omar Epps, in a role that was originally set for Tupac (which would have been incredible too). He's just a charisma machine. I still don't really get why he didn't become.an even bigger deal.

Considering she became a fucking MAGAt, it's now kind of amusing seeing Swanson play a liberal feminist. She had a moment there in the 90s.

The real key is Rapaport, as one of the most fascinating characters in any movie. Remy ends the movie trying to shoot black people, but I'm not sure he is ACTUALLY a racist at all. He starts out as this super awkward kid who has zero social skills at all, and who just wants to make any friend at all. He's even shown early in the movie playing an arcade game with Malik. But everyone just looks at him as this weirdo...except the skinheads. They take him in and show him some friendship, even twisted friendship. So he basically just molds himself into being one of them, replete with the racism and repeating lines he obviously wasn't self taught about hating affirmative action and wanting a race war. He's playing up a role to keep the only friends he has. So when at the end he is crying that he's sorry about what he did, I think he means that. He didn't go to college to commit a hate crime.

As many a 90s movie did, this had a great soundtrack. I think this was one of the very best. I was constantly listening to it on the bus to school with my then spiffy new discman. It's a cool mix of genres, too, appropriately.

I was pretty much obsessed with this film for all of 1995. I saw it 5 times in theaters. I think I saw it once a week, and that was before I could even drive myself. Watched it on video a ton. I even had a weird tradition for several years where I watched it on the 1st day of school (I mean, the film starts on the 1st day of school). And I did literally watch it on my 1st day of college. I'm weird, okay.

The film wasn't a flop or anything, but it wasn't a big movie either. I think it caught on as more of a cult film. And like I said, I think this was a film that was ahead of its time, and during a decade where a lot of people wanted to pat themselves on the back for how much we had supposedly conquered racism, Singleton showed us that we still had a lot of work to do. 

2005:

Clint Eastwood's latter day peak occurred with Million Dollar Baby, the film that crushed the 2005 Oscars.

Much of the film is a very standard, albeit extremely well made, underdog sports movie. Hilary Swank's Maggie is an aspiring boxer, with little technique and no backup plan. She comes under the tutelage of the grizzled old Frankie, played by Eastwood, and he teaches her how to be a fighter. 

Surely the film would have wound up being good even if it just stuck to the usual formula, and Maggie had come up and become a champion. But this film takes an abrupt turn into its last act that really elevates it into a classic all its own.

Maggie suffers a devastating injury in the ring that renders her paralyzed from the neck down. Soon she asks Frankie to end her life, and he struggles over whether or not to do it.

Considering some of what Eastwood became politically not long after this, it's ever more stunning how compassionately the film deals with this crisis. It comes out very much on the side of saying euthanasia is acceptable in such extreme circumstances. And this whole last third of the film is fucking crushing and tearjerking, but in that good way.

Swank, who came out of nowhere 5 years earlier to win a best actress Oscar for Boys Don't Cry, joined a very select club by winning #2 for this. It isn't quite the transformative work her earlier performance was, but she is a dynamo in this too.

Morgan Freeman, who plays Frankie's assistant at the gym, and a former protégé, finally won himself his 1st Oscar for his superb work here. And yes, that includes a lot of that brilliant narration that nobody has ever done better than him. 

Frankly, Eastwood himself could have won too. He was nominated, and it's a wonderful performance, devoid of any of the silliness he has brought to some of his acting since. Jamie Foxx won for Ray, so it's not like he lost to some scrub. And he did win for directing. 

And the film did win best picture too, one of the best films of this century to win that prize.

Other non-deep dive flicks....

1985:

-Blood Simple: The debut film from the Coen Brothers. A darkly comic noir. 

1995:

-Before Sunrise: The first of Richard Linklater's trilogy. I honestly didn't like this at all when I first saw it. 

-Houseguest: I saw this in theaters, a comedy where Sinbad (remember him?) weasles his way into Phil Hartman's life. 

2005:

-Coach Carter: Very standard inspirational coach sports movie, elevated by the coach being played by Samuel L Jackson. 

-Elektra: What a huge disappointment this was. Loved Jennifer Garner in Daredevil, but her spinoff solo film ranks among the all time worst comic book films. 

-The Phantom of the Opera: Joel Schumacher's lavish musical with Emmy Rossum. 

-Assault On Precinct 13: Unnecessary but solid remake with Ethan Hawke. 

2015:

-Project Almanac: A group of high school kids discover how to time travel in this movie, done rather needlessly in found footage style. Chronicle it is not but it ain't bad. 

-Taken 3: Not as good as 1, better than 2. 

-Blackhat: A dull techno thriller from Michael Mann, with Chris Hemsworth horribly miscast as a genius hacker. 

-The Boy Next Door: This should have been sleazy fun, with J Lo having a fling with a younger neighbor who then goes all stalker. But, sorry, give up the goods then. Cause the script wasn't going to make this memorable. 

-The Wedding Ringer: One of the most pre-hated movies of all time, with one of the most obnoxious trailers ever. I think I did eventually watch this and it wasn't quite that bad, but it was still bad. 

Coming in February....

Fairly thin month again.

Billy Madison turns 30. The hugely underrated Constantine turns 20. And one of my favorite films of the 2000s, Wonder Boys, turns 25.