Amazon.com video review:
This ambitious 1995 film by John Singleton (Boyz N the Hood) doesn't
quite succeed at painting the illuminating, collective portrait of college
life in
the '90s that the director seeks. But Singleton does do a fine job of
defining some
conflicting impulses for young people on the cusp of adulthood,
particularly the
desire to broaden horizons on the one hand and circle the wagons with
like-minded
allies on the other. Students in the film's Columbus University divide
themselves
along lines of race, sexual preferences, ideology, and, most dangerously,
levels of
paranoia. Among the fine cast is Michael Rapaport, who portrays a loner
drawn to a
local community of neo-Nazis. His resultant problems with the school's
African-Americans takes over the story at the expense of other, parallel
dramas, but
Singleton's insights into race hatred on campus--a microcosm of the
surrounding
culture--is not to be dismissed. --Tom Keogh
