THE REWATCHABLES · February 19, 2020
A 1995 drama / romance directed by John Singleton, covered in the complete Rewatchables archive.
ON THIS EPISODE
FROM THE CONVERSATION
WHY IT WORKS
WHAT DID NOT WORK
SCENES THEY KEPT COMING BACK TO
They pick the party-crash sequence as the film's most rewatchable stretch, especially for Ice Cube's energy.
About 48 minThe skinhead recruitment scene is praised as tense and persuasive, with Hauser charismatic and predatory.
About 40 minThe confrontation and gunpoint sequence are remembered as intense and effective, if slightly TV-movie-ish.
About 40 minThe fight tied to the racist insult and historical anger is praised as a strong escalation scene.
About 40 minThey say the ending is grim but gripping, with the final chase, fight, and arrest sequence working well despite the film's flaws.
About 40 minWHERE THEY DISAGREED
Bill SimmonsYes; Tupac would have transformed every scene and made the movie much better.
Van LathanYes; he says Tupac changes the chemistry and intensity of the entire film.
Wesley MorrisImplicitly skeptical about speculation but acknowledges the impact would have been huge.
Bill SimmonsIt tries to do too much in too little time.
Wesley MorrisIt lacks trust, discipline, and tonal control; every scene feels like point-proving.
Van LathanIt is overstuffed and too aggressive, though still resonant.
Van LathanBelievable as a lonely kid seeking belonging and overcompensating.
Bill SimmonsThe character works because the writing makes his trajectory understandable.
Wesley MorrisAccepts the concept more than the execution.
Bill SimmonsThe structure creates strong escalation and payoff in the shooting finale.
Van LathanThe rape material gets lost once the revenge plot takes over.
Wesley MorrisThe movie's tension is real, but the execution is too blunt.
Bill SimmonsIce Cube won because his character is the most concrete and resolved.
Van LathanIce Cube won for the same reason.
Wesley MorrisNobody really won; the victory is more conceptual and uneasy.
Argues the movie got better for him with age because its themes and cast now resonate more strongly.
Opening minutesSays the movie still does not really work for him, even after revisiting it.
Opening minutesLikes that the film is flawed but still compulsively rewatchable and culturally revealing.
Opening minutesCalls her performance a major drag on the movie and argues it would be substantially better without her.
About 8 minSays Tupac was one of the decade's most interesting actors and that his casting would have transformed the movie.
About 8 minThinks the professor character is conceptually real and important, but the accent/characterization is shaky.
About 32 minFeels Rapaport works because the character is desperate, odd, and physically believable.
About 48 minTreats Ice Cube as the movie's strongest presence and the actor who comes away best.
About 48 minAdmires Singleton's ambition and political urgency, even while acknowledging his overreach.
About 16 minExplains that the film captures how college becomes a small-scale version of race, class, and identity conflict.
About 16 minThey stress Singleton's idea that college campuses reveal the country's racial and ideological conflicts in concentrated form.
About 16 minThey see the movie as driven by Singleton's anger, which gives it force but also causes overstatement and structural problems.
About 16 minRemy's journey is framed as a believable progression from isolation to extremist belonging rather than a simple caricature.
About 24 minThey discuss the clash between older Black pragmatism and younger Black anger/idealism, especially through Fishburne and Epps.
About 32 minThe hosts argue nearly every character carries trauma, and the movie is full of battered, unstable energy.
About 32 min · medium confidenceSingleton said the movie was based on his anger and on the idea that college campuses show America in pure form.
About 16 minTupac was originally cast as Remy before going to jail.
About 8 minThere was an internet rumor that Leonardo DiCaprio was considered for Remy.
About 8 min · medium confidenceSingleton originally wanted Sidney Poitier for the professor role, then Dustin Hoffman, before the studio pushed Lawrence Fishburne.
About 1:04Vivica A. Fox was considered for Tyra Banks' role.
About 1:04 · medium confidenceSingleton had originally wanted Gwyneth Paltrow and Juliette Lewis for the two campus women roles.
About 1:04 · medium confidenceThe sniper sequence was based on the Charles Whitman University of Texas shooting.
About 1:04The movie's ending title card says 'unlearn.'
About 1:12Used to compare Singleton's best work and his relationship to Black audiences.
About 8 minCited as a complicated, rewatchable Singleton film with strong scenes and music.
About 16 minUsed as a structural comparison for race, sex, and campus-style social collision.
About 24 minReferenced to explain the ensemble and collision-of-ideologies structure.
About 24 minUsed as a comparison for campus politics and institutional conflict.
About 48 minHeld up as a soundtrack benchmark and as a Tupac-related comparison.
About 56 minReferenced through a cast member comparison and shared 1990s actor lore.
About 48 min · medium confidenceReferenced as another college-campus movie in the same era.
About 1:04 · medium confidenceMentioned as a modern version of some of the campus-race territory.
About 1:04Used to situate the film in a broader 1995 racial climate.
About 40 minUsed to explain how the Remy character now feels eerily current.
About 56 minNamed as the real-life basis for the fictional school.
About 40 minReferenced because Singleton discussed the movie's motivation there.
About 16 minUsed in a discussion of Black immigrant identity and learning racism through performance.
About 48 min · medium confidenceReferenced during a broader discussion of Black actors' career lanes and typecasting.
About 48 min · medium confidenceThe hosts repeatedly emphasize that this is a special series focused on flawed but fascinating movies.
Opening minutesThey keep returning to the idea that Tupac's presence would have changed the entire movie.
About 8 minCube is repeatedly singled out as the movie's strongest and most watchable presence.
About 48 minThey riff on how Black actors get one mistake before Hollywood cools on them.
About 48 minThe hosts jokingly discuss a recurring archetype: the older campus guy who knows everything.
About 32 min · medium confidenceThey repeatedly dunk on the opening and closing music and compare it to better rap-film soundtracks.
About 56 min“the first episode of the flawed rewatchables”Opening minutes
“40% better without Tyra Banks”About 8 min
“One beatdown will never compare”About 40 min
“It's my world. It's my country.”About 1:12
“everybody's not going to the same place”About 24 min
MAKE IT A MOVIE NIGHT
WHAT TO WATCH NEXT
Three movies to watch before Higher Learning, and three to watch next.
ON THE MIC
Bill SimmonsThe Rewatchables
Van LathanThe RewatchablesREWATCH FAVS
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